GRUPPO CONCORDE SPA

Their core work

Gruppo Concorde is a large Italian ceramic tile manufacturer based in Fiorano Modenese, the heart of Italy's Sassuolo ceramic district. In the H2020 context they act as an industrial end-user, hosting pilot demonstrations of energy-recovery and resource-efficiency technologies inside real ceramic production lines — kilns, spray dryers, and water circuits. Their value is providing a live factory environment where researchers can test heat pipes, waste heat recovery, and water/material recycling systems at industrial scale. For partners, this means access to one of Europe's most energy-intensive manufacturing sectors as a validation site.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the first period (2016-2019) their involvement centered on kiln-side thermal engineering — ceramic kilns, refractory materials, heat pipes, and simulation of high-temperature processes. From 2020 onward (iWAYS) the focus broadens from pure heat recovery toward full circular-economy integration: water recycling, material recovery, and cross-stream energy reuse. The trajectory mirrors the sector's wider shift from energy efficiency alone to combined water-energy-material resource efficiency.

They are moving from point-solution heat recovery toward integrated circular-economy retrofits, making them a relevant industrial host for upcoming projects on decarbonising ceramic and other energy-intensive process industries.

How they like to work

Gruppo Concorde consistently joins as a third party rather than leading consortia, which is typical for an industrial end-user contributing a production site rather than research effort. Across three projects they have appeared alongside 35 different partners from 10 countries, suggesting they are not tied to a single research network but rotate between consortia built around ceramic-sector decarbonisation. Working with them means bringing your own research leadership while relying on them for industrial credibility and demonstration access.

Three projects have placed them in contact with 35 consortium partners across 10 European countries, a reasonably broad network for a purely industrial participant. Their center of gravity remains Italian ceramic-district engineering partnerships, extended outward through EU-level research consortia.

What sets them apart

Very few large European ceramic tile manufacturers actively open their production lines to EU research pilots — Gruppo Concorde has done so three times, covering kiln redesign, heat pipes, and water recovery. For a consortium that needs a real, running ceramic plant to validate energy or circular-economy technology, they are one of a short list of credible hosts in the Sassuolo district, the largest ceramic tile cluster in Europe. Partners gain not just test access but a proof point inside a sector where adoption decisions influence hundreds of other plants.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DREAM
  Directly targeted the core of their business — redesigning ceramic kilns for energy and resource efficiency — making it the clearest fit to their expertise.
• iWAYS
  Their most recent and longest-running project (2020-2025), signaling a move from heat recovery alone to integrated water, material, and energy circularity.
• ETEKINA
  Industrial demonstration of heat pipe technology for waste heat recovery, a concrete example of them hosting a novel thermal technology in a real production setting.