Innova Group: corrugated board horizons

Increase in productivity, investments in technology and rendering the systems more efficient, shrewd management of resources and means, BRC certification: from the all positive indicators of the integrated paper&board converter Innova Group (owned and run by the Pedrotti family) to the market potentials for the year at hand. Luciana Guidotti

For the sixth year in succession the Innova Group grows, finding confirmation in the management choices made in the recent past, that enable the market to be tackled with a good dose of optimism.
Last June 13, at the works at Caino (BS), at the order of the day of the by now traditional yearly encounter between the three CEOs - Diego, Luca and Stefano Pedrotti, who run the concern founded by their father Giovanni - were the figures and the facts relating to business year 2016, with anticipations on the lines of the program for 2017.

The results. Luca Pedrotti spoke of figures in particular, where a growth of 9% was shown compared to 2015, with an aggregate turnover at around 110 million euros and a consolidated turnover of around 77 million euros (the figures are shown in the table).
A result this achieved following two directions: on the one hand the increase in productivity, that has enabled a reduction of prices on the corrugated board packaging market and reaching competitivity that would be hard to equal; on the other a considerable increase in sales, aboveall abroad, of special niche products.

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How the change takes place.  On the institutional front, Diego Pedrotti intervened, speaking aboveall of the merger between the two companies IBO and COB of Caino that occurred at the end of 2016: an operation that has enabled the optimisation of the profitability of the two works, exploiting the synergies to the full.
He also announced the unification of the five companies belonging to the group under the name Innova Group: the new structure, in force since January 2017, will enable an increase in the recognisability of the brand on a national and international level.

He too focussed attention on the BRC* certification, obtained in February: requisites necessary and fundamental for producing packaging destined for the food sector, that represents a great opportunity for demonstrating the commitment of the company in terms of safety, quality and the respect of the standards that regulate the segment.
On this count we reiterate that for the Innova Group, the production of boxes for the food sector now accounts for some 60% of its overall business.

* The BRC global standard for agrifood safety is one of the tools used for the due diligence, enabling that is to demonstrate the adoption of all the reasonable measures to avoid accidents or damage and to choose the suppliers for the agrifood chain. This approach enables a reduction of the overall management costs of the supply chain and  at the same time to increase the level of safety for customers, suppliers and consumers.

Invest in growth. Satisfaction as to the general run of the group, Stefano Pedrotti reiterated that the economic indicators stayed high throughout the financial year 2016 (after much time back to the record figures registered in 2007). The positive trend also carried over into the first quarter of 2017, confirming a more solid and broadly spread recovery in all industrial sectors, with obvious positive influences on the demand for corrugated board.

At Caino, the existing EMBA 170 is being  replaced  with a new casemaking line to produce smallscale packaging: the new EMBA 175 QS 5 color  ULTIMA™ ensures high productivity and quality thanks to the use of the direct motor technology. It combines excellent performance with a considerable saving in raw materials and energy.

But high industrial demand in terms of volume, always leads to, as an unfortunate consequence, a strong draw on raw material prices - both paper for pulping and corrugating - with an average increase that, in certain cases, has also touched on 20%.

Stefano Pedrotti has also reiterated that, given the solidity attained, it is not time to “lower ones guard”; but rather one needs to exploit all the efforts made over the latter years, thinking for example of the future of the company.
Which is why he illustrated the extent of the investments implemented in 2016 (2 million and 100 thousand euros) and those for the year at hand.
Of the 7 million euros earmarked for 2017, 4 million are destined to increase the Erbè works, here a new warehouse of 8,000 sqm built with innovative criteria will be equipped with a special roof that will enable better thermal insulation, with relative benefits on the optimum preservation of material, for which the technical and qualitative characteristics will be preserved.
Of the remaining 3 million, a part has been reserved for the purchase of a new casemaking line for the production of smallscale packaging, installed in august in the Caino works, leaving the rest for various forms of industrial modernisation.