Salco, a company that has been designing and producing corrugated cardboard and paper packaging for over 50 years in the province of Treviso, now is managed by its second generation of entrepreneurs
Industrial packaging is the core business of the offer from which it all began, and over time other product lines have been added that are increasingly closer to the paper industry and aimed at the end customer, such as boxes for e-commerce shipments, displays and other special projects based on corrugated cardboard.
The passion for innovation and the commitment to continuous improvement have been the engine of Salco’s growth, attentive to the valorization of know-how, but also to the quality of relationships and devoted to the culture of service. Service has always been the leading factor of the company strategy, combined with the continuous investment in design know-how and new production technologies. The management’s commitment is aimed at finding customized solutions both in design and service, to provide reliable support to customers in various production sectors.
Today Salco works in two sites of 14,000 mq, one dedicated to the box factory, with automatic production and printing lines and one to paper converting industry, recently expanded, for more complex processes and small production batches, achieving a turnover of around 15 million euros with a team of 50 collaborators.
A process optimization work supported by lean manufacturing specialists has laid the foundations for further development of production capacity supported by investments in new equipments. In parallel, the analysis of the competitive scenario and market evolution led the company to choose an offer extension strategy, leveraging its distinctive skills and potential production synergies.
Face to face with Giorgio Bramezza and Gianluca Zorzi – Owners of Salco S.r.l.
How do you describe the current competitive scenario in the packaging sector?
“Packaging is today a highly evolving competitive sector. On the one hand, customers’ interest is increasingly moving towards customized solutions capable of guaranteeing, in addition to functionality and cost-effectiveness, a valuable image of the brand and minimizing the environmental impact, with requirements for the recyclability of materials and easy disposal. The return to manufacturing in our territories requires efficient production partnerships with the integration of supply chains, and packaging is an integral part of this. It is therefore essential to organize a lean production logics to reduce all types of waste and with the ability to respond quickly to the increasingly diversified requests of our customers”.
What are the elements that led you to set up a new paper converting division?
“The sum of these needs requires the ability to offer a wider range of solutions, from design to printing technologies, suitable for large volumes, small batches or special projects. For us, paper converting represents an expansion and diversification of the offer towards higher value products, to integrate know-how and production. We can thus broaden the response to the needs of current customers, strengthening partnership relationships and supply chain integration and at the same time addressing new targets with image and value needs, a world that requires dedicated consultancy to interpret a brief and propose the most suitable solutions. We have therefore decided to strategically invest in the development of the technical office and the commercial structure, to be able to communicate effectively with the world of brands”.
Speaking of digital transformation, what value do you attribute to software and hardware technology to support your strategic project?
“Flexibility and speed of reaction require strengthening information sharing and the ability to develop projects, with the support of integrated information systems throughout the process, between the design, estimate, order management and production phases. The latest generation software & hardware technologies must guarantee quality and speed of execution. The evolution of work tools is therefore an integral part of our development strategy and an area of important investment. Digital transformation begins in most cases with the insertion of digital printing and cutting technologies, but finds its maximum expression when the processes are automated and digitized, for this reason the combination of hardware and software technologies totally integrated is essential”.
In this context, what value do you attribute to the collaboration with B+B International S.r.l.?
“B+B is a consolidated partner for us, with vertical experience in the specific paper converting sector, which has developed software for the management of complex processes. With ArtiosCAD we have been designing for years both a simple American box and a complex display, made up of different elements and materials, managing to optimize their nesting for production. With Packway software, we manage the entire operational process, the collection of brief data in the CRM, the management of the technical office, sales, purchasing, production planning, automatic collection of production data, logistics, warehouse and shipping. Of particular importance for us is the innovative integration between Packway and ArtiosCAD, which has allowed us to significantly automate the estimate activity, therefore a better qualitative response to the customer in significantly quicker times. We have recently decided to invest again in a Kongsberg cutting plotter to complement the one in use for many years, opting for the top of the range, the latest series launched on the market a few months ago, precisely Kongsberg Ultimate 64 Auto, which has proven itself the best performing technology in every aspect in its category”.
What do you have in mind for the future?
“We would like to increasingly become a point of reference for companies and brands with diversified packaging, display and product promotion needs, able to offer corrugated cardboard-based solutions, extending both service and quality”.
