Fifteen years ago, FGS was a start-up. Today it is a structured SME. And the decision to remain one — across international markets, through crises, alongside naval and industrial clients — was exactly that: a decision.
Today marks the International Day of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), recognised by the United Nations as a pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: MSMEs account for 90% of all businesses worldwide, generate over 60% of employment and contribute 50% of global GDP. Numbers that speak for themselves — but that, on their own, say nothing about what it truly means to build a business and keep it standing over time.
“FGS was founded fifteen years ago as a start-up, with a clear business idea and a simple principle: to be a reliable, fast and flexible partner. We grew over time, becoming a structured SME. A natural evolution towards a sustainable model — one that today allows us to compete on an international scale”, says Alessandro Biggio, CEO and Founder of FGS.
FGS could have pursued more aggressive growth trajectories. Instead, it chose to consolidate what sets it apart: the quality of its relationships, technical depth, and the ability to respond precisely to each client’s needs. A decision renewed over time, even through the most difficult moments — from the pandemic to global economic turbulence — when uncertainty tested the resilience of every business. In a sector like marine and industrial, responsiveness is not a detail: it is a concrete competitive advantage.
FGS’s international reach has never been built through corporate structures or large intermediaries. It has grown through a network of local agents and distributors — in many cases other SMEs — selected for their competence, reliability and shared values. International growth, in this sense, has not diluted the SME model: it has replicated it.
FGS was born in La Spezia, a city of the sea by vocation and by history, in a territory that has forged a concrete, technical, substance-oriented work culture. It is from these roots that the competence, rigour and relational style that still define the company today originate.
“Being an SME today means taking on a double responsibility: towards your clients and towards the economic fabric in which you operate. It is a choice I would make again”, concludes Biggio.
Because SMEs are not simply small businesses. They are businesses that have chosen to be great at the things that matter.