From an
intuition almost a century ago, a giant was born on the via Emilia that
continues to churn out hi-tech and sustainable solutions. This is the way in
which the world leader in the production of caps for the bottling industry
looks to the future. For FARE Insieme Giampaolo Colletti interviews Marco
Checchi, CEO of the Gruppo Pelliconi
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
There is a company that
toasts 32 billion times a year. Because these are the number of caps that are
produced each year in that via Emilia (Emilia-Romagna region) that is teeming
with intuition and innovation. Caps that are produced and opened in every
corner of the world, but with an Italian (or rather Emilian) heart. We are
talking of Ozzano dell’Emilia, a town of less than fifteen thousand souls in
the metropolitan area of Bologna. Pelliconi moved here in the 1960s, although
the company was established much earlier under the Two Towers in Bologna. The
year was 1939 and Angelo Pelliconi, a small producer of small metal parts, one
day sensed that there was much more behind a simple crown cap on an American
bottle, giving life to the Angelo Pelliconi company, which today has become
Pelliconi Spa, the emblem of the made in Italy in the bottle closures sector. A
history of product innovation, but also of spasmodic research for new ideas
that go beyond metal or plastic, which are considered traditional packaging
components for the food & beverage industry. At the beginning, the company
consisted of about forty motivated and multitasking employees, as we would say
today. The transport of the plates was done by hand and the caps were born on
semi-automatic machines. Here, also the oil and wine capsules and even the
packages of the mythical tablets of the Re Sole came to life. Then in 1975 the first
advanced crown cap machines entered the company. Hence, the caps with cork
gaskets, up to the arrival of PVC in the 1980s. And finally in 2008 the arrival
of the revolutionary Maxi P-26 tear-off cap. «We have never stopped innovating, for us it has always been a
healthy obsession. After all, packaging must be beautiful, bright and
responsible.» Marco Checchi, Chief Executive Officer of Pelliconi, a manager
who joined the company in 1984 as purchasing manager and who was awarded the
title of Knight of Labour (Cavaliere del Lavoro) from this year, repeats it
like a mantra.
Innovation with a green heart
The
reference market is 50% linked to beer, then there are soft drinks and mineral
waters. But to understand the impact in the sector well, we must think that
these solutions are adopted everywhere. «We
are convinced that our approach to business sustainability is the best choice
to continue the path of success that has allowed us to become what we are
today. All our factories have adhered to increasingly demanding international
standards in terms of quality, food safety and the environment to ensure customers
and consumers the best products possible. Our creativity is aimed at what is
useful. And even before that there is respect: for people, for the community,
for the environment», says Checchi. The bottler is thus sustainable, but also
hi-tech. Like the packaging, which is increasingly recyclable and reduced to a
minimum. And then there are the innovations related to artificial intelligence,
with the control and reordering of the caps in the warehouse. «We are oriented towards maximising
profits, but in a conscious way. Sustainability has always been part of our
DNA. We have produced a sustainability report since 2011, reviewed by Deloitte
& Touche SpA starting from this year. Only in this way is the business
linked to concrete and measurable actions to protect the environment. I am
thinking of energy saving, water control, waste management, activities related
to training and safety in the workplace», explains Checchi. The community comes
first, followed by the business or the shareholder dividend. In 2020, the
company launched "Pelliconi Plants a Forest": with the startup
Treedom it managed to plant 3,282 trees in 5 countries around the world and to
support two hundred farmers with their families.
Culture before business
Roots that
are anchored to the territory, but with the ability to climb the markets. To
date, Pelliconi has five factories around the world: two in Italy, in Ozzano
dell’Emilia and in Atessa, in the province of Chieti. Then there is the
Egyptian factory in Cairo, the one in Orlando in the United States and the one
in Suzhou in China with a sixth factory in the national high-tech district of
Changzhou (China) that is about to be
established. Today the company employs nearly 600 people with an annual turnover
of 154 million euros and an export rate that is close to 95% of the production,
reaching more than 100 countries. The key is to be local. Close to the local
community but with an international soul. It is the culture of the local for local based on transparency,
respect and attention. A company with a glass roof. On the other hand, the
vision is expressed in the “way of being, thinking, working.” «This approach also has a competitive
advantage. And then people have to be who they are. This allows you to be, for
example, on the same wavelength as the Chinese consumer, who is not the same as
the African one.» Attention to different cultures, but also to different
generations. Thus, the Angelo Pelliconi Laboratory entitled “University for the
creation of value” was born ten years ago: a container of training
opportunities for employees and the community with courses held by the managers
who work in the company itself. «This
is a school that teaches the basics of economics addressed to all employees. We
let our elders talk who represent our historical memory: this is how we pass on
the tradition of industrial culture. This is the true passage of
intergenerational transmission. Culture must not become a ballast because the
company needs change, but it can synthesise principles and build renewal», says
Checchi.
Much more behind a cap
«The word smart has different meanings. Today it
means that a packaging is bright because it is able to collect information on
the contents, making a sort of profiling. But there is also another meaning,
which declines the package into something more: all this implies the use of
less raw material, but also the adoption of shapes that can also allow other
uses of the same cap», says Checchi. A
cap that is much more than being just a cap. The research opens up new
scenarios for a marketing that reinvents itself by exploiting materials that
are constantly evolving. Pelliconi has thus created a crown cap, which instead
of the teeth has a border in which it is possible to print additional
information. There are also other aspects related to the new materials being
processed, such as the fact that they do not contain heavy metals. «Research improves performance,
preventing and reducing the impact on the environment. The cap becomes a
marketing lever. It all started with the promotions performed right on the
caps. In the past, these were simple activities, while today alphanumeric codes
are created on the caps that refer to the browsing experience on smartphones.
All this allows the bottlers to provide promotions at a fast pace: today with a
software we can quickly change the competition, profile consumers with a
specific QR code and print different types of messages on the caps. There are
also trailers or games that start from that cap that becomes much more than
just a cap.» And then there is the opening towards small and medium-sized
artisanal businesses, such as breweries that are proliferating almost
everywhere and that until now could mainly use anonymous caps. P • ink has arrived for them, the new service
for digital printing on caps, developed internally and patented for customised
products, even in small batches.
The extended family
The future,
however, is built starting from the past and looking to the future. «Ours is a team effort, after all we
are an extended family that goes from the United States to China. And as it
happens in families when someone is in difficulty, we help each other. On the
other hand, there is a deck of cards where you can draw a card every day and
not each one that you draw will be your best choice.» The pandemic was
something like this. For Checchi, COVID19 exposed the weaknesses of the system
and overturned a normality that was taken for granted. «We have done our job even better and with extraordinary
procedures, which were set up in a very short time. And we have learned to be
even more of a team, and this means listening to others and to their needs.» On
the other hand, only with your ears pricked can you grasp the signs of the
future.
