They have been systemizing brilliant insights since the first generation, with the foundation of a company focused on marketing cameras and associated products back in 1925. Later on, in 1978, bar codes and digitization of the supply chain were introduced. Profile of the Castenaso-based company that links human capital and technology. Per FARE INSIEME Giampaolo Colletti interviews Irene Castelli, sole administrator of Bancolini Symbol
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
There are those who struck it rich in America, as well as those who decided to bring that fortune back to Italy, or rather to Emilia. Because the story we are about to tell crosses the two continents - America and Italy - in those years at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. Complex, intense years. Years marked by a political and energy crisis, but also by redemption, by the will to do.
Company history. In 1978, Mr. and Mrs. Bancolini-Castelli, owners of the eponymous company specializing in the sale of photographic and photomechanical equipment, decided to participate in a trade fair right in the States. There, they first discovered those curious signs that would make a revolution in the digital field, known to this day as barcodes. Thus the idea was born. Bring them to Italy and rethink their own company. Here is that courage we were talking about earlier. To grasp the great potential of the new system, an innovative symbology-related department was created and production of Codemaster master films for printing bar codes was started. Sophisticated hi-tech machinery even arrived from Holland. It was so successful that in June of that same year, the Bancolini Symbol company was founded. Thus, the activity of printing and verifying master films was complemented by the activity of checking already printed codes thanks to new products. A genius that is a family affair. Because back in 1925 Piero Bancolini decided to move from Milan to Bologna. He was twenty-seven years old and today we would have called him a startupper in all respects. Piero Bancolini loved taking photographs and wanted to market that passion, turning it into a job. So, in the beginning, he sold cameras: he cut film, made rolls of film and distributed the products all over Italy with Bancolini vans. He was well known among the photographers of the Romagna Riviera, in the endless summers between Rimini and Riccione. “However, Grandpa Piero chose Bologna because it was strategic for him even at the time, a hub between northern and southern Italy. Later, the company evolved with my dad on the graphics and prepress side. Then, in the 1980s, Bancolini System was established. We have a connection to our roots: we even have a museum of our grandfather's cameras», says Irene Castelli, sole administrator of the current company, who was born in Bologna, trained in economics and business and with a great passion for electronics.
People and technology. Today, digital is making a difference. Bancolini is in the business of digitizing the supply chain. “Our skills have developed over the years in multiple directions. From coding to reading, from printing to consumables, from print and apply systems to data collection and management software in Industry 4.0. I believe that technology should be a tool made available to people to improve the quality of their work, relieve them from repetitive operations, help them simplify decisions and recover time”, Castelli says. Mom Adriana, who has headed the company since its founding since 1983, passed the baton to her. Today, the company has 30 employees located in the industrial area of Castenaso, near Bologna. Our customers come from different sectors: manufacturing, automotive, ceramics, logistics, transportation. “We are a reliable technology partner, not just a supplier. We aim to streamline processes and are aware that, whatever market you operate in, human intelligence is the ultimate element of expression and competitiveness. People are the real strategic asset. Companies are communities united by a common purpose, and I believe they must have a purpose higher than pure profit. The profitability of a company is fundamental, but it should be aimed at redistributing wealth, both inside and outside the community”, Castelli recalls. Human capital and technologies, exactly in that order. This is quickly grasped. Today, smartworking is extended to all people in the company, and it started as early as 2019. Then, the pandemic certainly accelerated this process, but here we had embarked on a path typical of pioneers. Last year, which ended with +30 percent turnover, Bancolini gave away 1,200 euro in vouchers to each employee. “I am convinced that companies are vehicles for growth and training, bodies that have the responsibility to continuously evolve for the common good by going beyond the logic of pure profit”, Castelli says. There is a lot of investment in research and development in the future, especially in the area of integrated solutions, hardware and software. However, another necessary aspect is to seek valuable collaborations with other companies as well in order to be successful together in both the Italian and foreign markets. “Being scalable and flexible, that is the winning key”, Castelli concludes. And she immediately thinks of the words of Stefano Mancuso, a leading botanical scientist: “Plants embody a more resilient and modern model than the animal model. They are the living representation of how solidity and flexibility can be combined. At their base is a distributed cooperative architecture, without command centers, capable of withstanding repeated catastrophic events without losing functionality”. Allying is the ace up the sleeve between the old world and the new world.
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