Wide range of products and custom design expertise

GVS produces a wide range of filter materials, filters and off-the-shelf components in all its divisions, enabling its customers to reduce the design time for new product launches.

All the GVS divisions work in highly regulated environments and the Group therefore operates with extremely high quality standards.

Thanks to its research and development centres located all over the world, GVS is also able to offer an extremely efficient and personalised service to meet its customers’ needs: from product conception and design to testing and mass production.

Dynamic and flexible structure

GVS has developed a streamlined, dynamic and technologically advanced structure that has made it possible to achieve constant and balanced growth. The Group currently employs a total of 2,500 people who work in automated assembly departments, in lines for the production and processing of filter membranes and in class 10,000 and 100,000 cleanrooms.

Global growth

Since its foundation, the GVS Group has always demonstrated a strong trend towards development in global markets.

Through its corporate headquarters in Bologna and its offices abroad, GVS has established a worldwide sales and production network to closely support its customers, offering them a more effective and efficient assistance service.

In sectors that are highly technological and critical in terms of safety, GVS has considered a “glocal” approach to be vitally important. This approach offers the ability to work locally with customers, while also remaining in communication with their offices at a global level.

GVS currently has plants in Italy (3), United Kingdom (1), Brazil (1), United States (4), China (2), Mexico (1) and Romania (1), as well as 6 sales offices located in Argentina, Russia, Turkey, Japan, Korea and China.

History

• 1979

Grazia Valentini – with the support of her father Renato, one of the first Italian injection mould designers – establishes GVS, which initially focuses on the production of medical filters for blood treatment. The company subsequently starts to manufacture a wide range of proprietary products that soon achieve considerable success and worldwide recognition.

• 1983-1990

The Energy and Mobility division is set up and the Group opens two more production plants in Monteveglio and Zola Predosa (Bologna).

• 1995-1997

In 1995, GVS obtains its first certifications: ISO 9001:1995 Quality Management System, QS 9000 and AVSQ’94. In 1997 GVS opens its sales office in Buenos Aires and in 1999 the new GVS do Brasil production plant is inaugurated in Monte Mor, São Paulo.

• 2000s

In 2001 the B Group private equity fund acquires a minority stake (about 20%) in GVS – a stake that is later repurchased by the Scagliarini family in 2006 – in order to promote and support the Group’s growth, with the opening of new sales offices in China, the United States and Mexico, as well as new production plants in Manocalzati (AV), Italy, and in the USA. In 2004, GVS opens a new sales office in Guadalajara, Mexico. In 2007 the Brazilian production plant doubles its manufacturing capacity and between 2007 and 2009 the Group acquires new companies in China, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.

• 2011-2015

In 2011, the Mandarin Capital Partners private equity fund acquires a minority stake (approximately 18.2%) in the share capital of the parent company GVS Group (a stake that is later repurchased in 2015). During these years, the Group continues its expansion through the acquisition of companies and the opening of new production facilities in China, Puerto Rico, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2014, GVS Korea and GVS Russia are launched. Starting in 2015, the Group continues to expand its production facilities in Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom and acquires a disposable mask manufacturing company in Brazil, a manufacturer of biohazard protective equipment in Italy and a company in Sweden. 

• 2017

GVS acquires the American group Kuss, a global manufacturer and marketer of strainer filters for the automotive, sport & utility and off-road sectors.

• 2019

GVS opens a new production plant in Mexico through its subsidiary GVS Mexico.

SANTRA Project 

Project basic facts:

• Beneficiaries: GVS Sud Srl, ONCOPATH Srl
• Start date: February 2017
• End date: September 2020
• Total budget: 1.121.697,5 €
• Public Contribution: 289.814,94 €

Project Objectives

The project's ambition is to develop two multifunctional, biomimetic filters that will make it possible to capture leukocytes, pathogens and potassium ions from blood and blood products used for transfusions. The new filters will be technologically innovative compared to the state of the art worldwide and will be commercialised by GVS after the end of the project.

Activities will start with a TRL4 and go up to TRL8.

Activities

For the realisation of the new filters, the following steps were developed in the laboratory and at industrial pilot level:

1. Development of an innovative process to hydrophilise the non-wovens that make up the leucodepletion filter. The treatment - based on polyetheramines - not only helps to improve leucodepletion of blood and blood products, but also helps to minimise the activation of cytokines during transfusions.
2. Development of a process to functionalise TNTs (with molecules having anionic functional groups) so that potassium ions can be captured from concentrates. Potassium ions can be captured from irradiated erythrocyte concentrates.
3. Development of semi-rigid filters in order to maximise retention capacity and blood flow rate by optimising the number of nonwoven layers that make up the filters, their sequence, and the geometry of the half-shells containing the nonwoven.

Results

The final result consists of two prototypes:

• A flexible (semi-rigid) filter for leukodepletion of erythrocyte concentrates that, in addition to capturing leukocytes (as do commercially available filters do) is able to reduce the activation of cytokines during filtration treatments.
• Flexible (semi-rigid) filter to capture extracellular potassium in irradiated and stored erythrocyte concentrates

This project has received funding from the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund

Research & Development

Technology is central to GVS’s business. Thanks to pioneering strategic choices, large investment in research and development, which accounted for 8% of revenues in 2019, and cutting-edge management systems, the Group has achieved considerable success and has received numerous international awards over the years.

In order to offer its customers a wide range of services and products distinguished by their high quality and reliability, GVS boasts state-of-the-art equipment and technical systems to support its research and technological development programs and the design of new products. All GVS plants share these innovations at a global level, which contributes to continuous development and enables the Group to maintain its characteristic level of technological excellence.

OEM customers are supported step-by-step by the technical project team, from concept through to industrial production. Proprietary products are developed in-house and feature innovations that are technically advanced in comparison to products on the international market.
Where possible, the design teams use membranes and filtration materials produced in-house by GVS to enable the products to offer the best possible performance.
One of the fundamental drivers behind the Group’s continuous development is its constant scientific collaboration with outstanding research centres, universities and laboratories around the world.

This process has led the Group to file and register numerous patents characterised by a unique design within the GVS product range.

Quality & Environment

GVS is a quality-oriented Group and its quality procedures now represent a shared starting point for the all the collaborators of the Group, which continuously innovates and improves its structure and organisational processes, developing and monitoring a system that guarantees a high level of quality and excellence for both its internal and external customers.
Satisfaction of customer expectations and staff training are the main goals of GVS which, applying the principles of quality and continuous improvement, uses advanced design technologies, error prevention methods and control systems throughout its production process to reduce the percentage of products that do not comply with specifications and therefore to pursue the goal of 100% defect-free production.

GVS obtained its first certifications in 1995 and today the Group and its plants hold numerous certifications at a global level. 9 GVS plants have all the necessary production certifications for the Health & Safety division, whose products are certified for worldwide distribution. The main certifications in this area are EN and NIOSH, respectively used in Europe and the United States. With regard to the Energy & Mobility division, all production facilities have moved from the old QS9000 certifications to the more recent ISO-TS 16949 certifications and are also in the process of obtaining the ISO 14001 environmental certifications. Furthermore, in the Healthcare & Life Sciences area, the plants operate with ISO 13485 certifications and are FDA-approved. Many of the products in this division have the CE or 510k mark (the equivalent of the CE mark valid for the FDA in the United States), as well as national registrations for the specific countries where the Group operates.

Our social commitment

GVS S.p.A., which has always been conscious of the important role that companies play in relation to the community, its members and the local area, has always considered social commitment to be an important priority, never neglecting this commitment, which it views as its own responsibility.

This commitment, perceived as a responsibility, is conducted with the same attitude with which the company carries out its work and is inspired by the same values and principles.

To this end, GVS has supported and continues to support various organisations and associations involved in helping those in difficulty and in aiding research, while also paying attention to local charitable and non-profit organisations.

The organisations to which GVS S.p.A. has decided to contribute include the non-profit Fondazione Il Bene, which is committed to research in the field of rare neurological and neuroimmune diseases, with a particular focus on new diagnostic and therapeutic methodologies.

In the field of research, the company also supports the non-profit Fondazione per la Ricerca sulla Fibrosi Cistica.

GVS also strongly supports Save the Children, an organisation whose main purpose is to save children, safeguard them and guarantee their development

Among the local charitable and non-profit organisations, GVS S.p.A. has chosen to assist the Croce Verde in Valsamoggia and the Fire Brigade and has contributed to financing the construction of the new headquarters of the non-profit public assistance association Gruppo Volontario di Soccorso Vallelavino.

Over the years, the number of initiatives has increased and GVS S.p.A.’s social activities have expanded, becoming an integral part of the Group’s work.

In recent years, GVS S.p.A. also decided to dispense of Christmas presents in order to donate to the Associazione Nazionale Tumori (ANT), the largest non-profit organization for specialist home care for cancer patients and free prevention.