From Bologna and Ravenna to the rest of the world. Vertical skills, advanced technologies, a lot of research and scalable solutions. These are the key features to Endura's success, encapsulated in new patented synthetic processes. The leading company in active and synergistic ingredients for insecticides, which invests on average over 7% of its turnover in research and development. Giampaolo Colletti interviews Marianna Vollaro, CEO of Endura Spa for FARE Insieme.
di Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
We bet on chemistry, but the green, high-performance, sustainable chemistry. The kind of chemistry that creates value and helps us build a better future. And in the world there is an Italian, indeed an Emilian signature, on this idea of chemistry that makes the difference. We are talking of Endura SpA, a company that has been developing, producing and selling active and synergistic ingredients for domestic insecticides and for public health for over fifty years. Its headquarters is in Bologna, while its research and development activities are in Ravenna, and its production plants between Italy and India. The team is made up of 130 employees with an average age of around 40 years old, a consolidated turnover of around 60 million euros for a global market that embraces 65 countries and a constant growth of + 7%, with a doubling since 2018 of +15%. «We are aware that we are in a market that is worth 500 million dollars and we have a market share of 15%. We are confronted with a large Japanese giant. But David often wins against Goliath», says Marianna Vollaro, CEO of Endura, with pride. This entrepreneur with an economic-financial background and mother of three children has lived among ampoules and flasks since she was a child thanks to her grandfather, founder of the company. After graduation, she continued her experiences abroad, the United States in the lead, and then returned to Italy in 2013. «I'm proud to have started from the bottom rolling up my sleeves and going abroad. You grow up above all by putting yourself to the test. My grandfather always said that it is easier to create and achieve success than to maintain it. And I keep this in mind every day.»
Sustainable research. To be specialists in the field of active and synergistic ingredients for insecticides, focusing on sustainability. «In this case we were able to identify an ecological alternative to the previous production process. Our constant search for innovation has led to numerous patents on new insecticides and synergists, as well as on formulation and process technologies», explains Vollaro. Vertical skills, advanced technologies, a lot of research and scalable solutions. These are the key features to Endura's success, encapsulated in new patented synthetic processes and long-term distribution agreements with various giants. The company invests on average over 7% of its turnover in research and development and 22 people, including technicians and data scientists, work full-time in the centre of excellence. «Chemistry is fundamental, but today research is strengthened by different disciplinary backgrounds. For us, sustainability is not a slogan, but a constant research in which we have always been committed. It is expressed in new, more performing molecules with a lower impact: in fact, it means being able to use fewer active ingredients and to be more sustainable», says Vollaro. You never stop betting on research. So even in the fragile and suspended time of the health emergency, Endura has carried out a new process of micro-encapsulation through liposomes to make natural agents, which are by definition photolable, long-lasting and effective against exogenous factors. «This is research focused on natural active ingredients: in this field this year we have created a patent linked to nanotechnologies and the micro-encapsulation of the molecule without plastics but with natural liposomes, that is natural fats, and with a gradual release over time. We try to design the future also in this way.» More than twenty years ago Endura thought of an innovative process for the production of PBO, abandoning the use of sassafras oil, for the production of which it was necessary to cut tall trees. Thus, chemistry can come to the rescue of the environment. «My grandfather, who was a visionary, at the end of the 90s thought that industrial design should be sustainable by definition. Chemistry can also do a lot for the agenda linked to the Sustainable Development Goals drawn up by the UN, producing less waste and optimising consumption. The process also becomes sustainable: in fact, what we are focusing on is process innovation, that is, increasingly green. We will be able to define and patent two new green processes by 2023 for an investment of around 10 million euros», says Vollaro.
From being follower to being leader. But in this story there are not only research laboratories, production plants and vertical skills put together. There is something more. In this story we can read between the lines the vision of a reality that scales the markets, that listens and that rethinks its governance and its processes. A cultural change, which is not just infrastructural, that makes the difference. «Since 2000 we have faced a change of pace and our numbers represent the evolution we have experienced. Before then, we only sold molecules, today we are leaders committed to promoting turnkey solutions. We have gone from being followers to being innovators, always keeping the customer at the centre of the project. In recent years we have invested a lot with research that looks at medium-long term scenarios, even at fifteen years», says Vollaro. Continuous innovation and teamwork are the pillars of our success. But how can we put them into practice? «It is a continuous interaction and in research we take errors into account, we proceed by trial and error and only in this way are we able to innovate. The basis is freedom of thought, combined with the rigorous process of selection and alignment with the group's strategies. Constructive ideas also arise from mistakes», Vollaro explains. Human capital, innovative systems, a sense of community and a culture of values: our strength lies in the mix of these ingredients. «Technology is the tool that allows us to ground, but we must never lose the link with the community. This is why we give back to the area with scholarships related to industrial chemistry, involving the ITIS of Ravenna. I strongly believe in education and that is why I also teach science literacy to students in high schools and middle secondary schools. We have to make children passionate about science subjects.» At Endura there is also a co-creation project pervading all areas of the company. It is called “Stage & gate”: collaborators can bring their ideas and these are carefully examined. «Not all of them pass, but those in line with the strategic and technological vision are carried forwards and are developed. The collaborators, who are the lifeblood on which the company is founded, thus feel at the centre of the company.» And there is another essential element that comes out of Vollaro's words: to generate innovation you must not follow predictable lines, but you have to experiment outside the box. And never be satisfied.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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