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Home > Spotlight
Fabrizio Lori: innovation for success
Rome - (Ign) - The story of Fabrizio Lori and his company, Nuova Pansac, is that of an entrepreneur who, faced with globalisation, the appearance of an increasing number of competitors, and the crises that periodically affect many industrial sectors, has managed to react through research and innovation. Today, Nuova Pansac is a leading company in the production of transpirant plastic films, which are used on a worldwide scale for the production of nappies and sanitary towels, and of special films for food use. It has eight production facilities, situated in the province of Venice (Mira, Portogruaro and Marghera), and near Bergamo and Ravenna. In 2005 it realised a turnover of almost €300 million, with 10% growth on the previous year. It has a staff of 1500 peopleand provides 500 jobs in induced manufacturing industries; it invests over 15% of its income in the design of new products and production solutions. We asked Fabrizio Lori, 37, with a Masters in Business Administration and a PhD from the Pacific West University in Los Angeles, in addition to a great love of football that led him to become chairman of the team of Mantova, what was the path to Nuova Pansac's success.
"A difficult path,"-replied Lori, "which began in the late 1990s when the international market of plastic materials saw the entry of a great number of competitors, able to present prices much lower than European companies and those from the West in general. We had to choose: either move to China or in any case to Asia, or invent new products, creating new markets for materials that didn't exist before. We rose to the challenge, my collaborators and I, and we won".
But good products don't always meet with market success. How did you deal with the commercial and competitive challenge?
"We started out with an advantage, in that we don't sell to the public, but to industries which use our products. This situation allows us to propose our product directly to industrial operators. We knew that our plastic films could lead to great improvement in the finished products and this convinced our first major customer. After him, it was almost automatic: all the other producers called us".
So technological and product innovation has been your winning card?
"Absolutely. The plastic materials sector is extremely poor, in the sense that the profit margins are minimal. To achieve competitive advantages it is necessary to keep on finding new technological solutions which can constantly improve final products. And this is what we will continue to do, also investing large amounts of economic resources. You must never stop on the road of innovation. In the early 1990s, when my father died prematurely and I found myself in my early twenties heading the company, I set myself the objective of leaving the traditional market of normal plastics, in order to occupy a safer, more solid niche, where competition is based on quality and not on price cuts of a couple of cents".
What do you expect from Nuova Pansac for the future?
"I expect a great deal. Today's efforts are all aimed at research on new materials. It is risky, because it requires significant investments and the results are not always successful. It is not always possible to design an economical material which is also able to improve products. But it's the only way forward. Everyone in the company is putting their heart and soul into this. And I am convinced that thanks to this great solidarity inside the company we will manage to go from strength to strength."
Contact:
Nuova Pansac spa
viale Restelli, 5
20124 Milano
tel +39026957
www.nuovapansac.com
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