Between emotions and strategies

Cama Group celebrates its 40th anniversary and confirms that "doing business" today means fielding speed of reaction in managing complexity and transforming what others consider impediments into opportunities.

Luciana Guidotti

«We have left an anomalous year behind us, which has first of all imposed the need to redesign the rules of living together in order to recover balance and a good overall vision. Yet, we are more convinced than ever that the state of necessity that everyone - people and companies - found themselves facing during the pandemic, has acted as an "accelerator" of good ideas and good practices. At least... for us at Cama it was like that».

These are the words of Annalisa and Daniele Bellante, owners of Cama Group (Garbagnate Monastero, LC), who agree in celebrating the forty-year history of the company - founded by their father in 1981 - with the right amount of pride for what has been done so far and for the prospects guaranteed to the company, thanks to the awareness of having taken the right path: that of "super" specialization in secondary packaging, with an uncommon vocation for innovation. But let’s take things as they come.

Improvement: always possible

Straightforward and polite, an attentive reader of market dynamics and very determined, Annalisa Bellante - CO-CEO of the Lecco-based company - says that

«in 2020, like others, we faced an exceptional situation from all aspects: organizational, managerial, productive. However, we had the strength to interpret it as a moment of reflection, difficult but opportune, also thanks to the solidity built over the years. We therefore concentrated on analyzing waste and real potential within the company... which allowed us to evaluate the present with clarity, in order to further improve our processes.

We have therefore reconciled the company in a modern key and this, in particular, has allowed us to grow in efficiency, adapting the structure to the contingent industrial needs, first and foremost the offer of a first class consultancy and assistance service.

In other words, if we examine the indicators, today we are obtaining really satisfactory results, after having optimized the industrial processes and after having rationalized the external supply network, bringing back some procedures and workings in-house».

And the reactions were not long in coming, rewarding what is the real plus of the company «or rather the ability to listen: an attitude that allows us to give answers that are no way predictable, customizing secondary packaging systems and “lowering" them into really complex packaging lines».   

As Annalisa points out,

«It is therefore no coincidence that we are approaching our pre-Covid objectives: the "famous" 100 million in turnover and a new headquarters, built according to advanced sustainability criteria, larger and more functional for future projects, many of which are already well underway».

Being a step ahead, but with our feet on the ground

Cama therefore claims the role of "secondary packaging specialist" with automated and high-tech packaging systems for the food and non-food sectors.

And it does so without arrogance, referring instead to the tradition of its origins in the paper converting sector... a tradition that has obviously been rewritten and renewed according to the criteria of a dynamic company open to the world, with its core business in engineering and production.

The group operates with two divisions, respectively dedicated to packaging and robotics, has branches in Europe, Asia, Australia and America, and has supported the creation of a network of "proximity" industrial partners - in turn specialized - together with whom it is able to offer complete packaging and wrapping lines.

This is reiterated by Daniele Bellante, CEO of Cama, inexhaustible in ranging in a few seconds from green issues, market trends to the "hard" aspects of technology, with an expertise that comes from direct knowledge of the facts and "hard work in the field".  

«In this historical moment I am satisfied with the degree of efficiency and reputation we have achieved, which repays us for the many investments made in R&D, quality and training and which have put the entire structure in a position to react promptly even to unforeseeable events. 

From the point of view of the technological proposal, for example, we responded to the difficulties generated by the pandemic by reinforcing remote services, with a digital platform with many functions such as pre-sales visualization, design and commissioning in augmented reality of all our systems. It has been a valuable solution to manage the issues of distancing but also suitable, regardless of the emergency, to meet the needs of the globalized market we are addressing. A real booster for promotion and sales».

Still growing at 40

Daniele then claims the validity of the business model developed over time, focused on the specialization of resources and activities.

«Our strength lies in our ability to offer technological solutions that are truly commensurate with the customer's needs in terms of secondary packaging, starting with the design of the cardboard packaging, which must ensure machinability and efficiency on our formers, case packers or wrap-around machines. In other words, we design automatic machines, loading islands and robots in-house and according to the mechanization of cardboard packaging... involving our network of partners to complete the upstream and downstream lines of our systems».  

Putting experience to good use, Cama therefore appears today to be in a position to know how to guide customers in making coherent and economically advantageous choices, finding alternative solutions even to those cutting-edge technological projects often requested. 

«After all, the real challenge for entrepreneurs like us is the ability to quickly adapt products and processes to changing market conditions», Annalisa and Daniele Bellante agree. «And it is thanks to the comparison with the external reality that we get to improve, renewing the enthusiasm and the desire to do business, trying to combine a far-sighted and courageous vision with a careful management of resources, so as to ensure a serene future for the company».