Three factories, 2,000 cultivated hectares, over 620 employees, 33 production lines, an aggregate turnover of approximately 50 million. These are the numbers of Opi, an acronym for Italian ready gardens gathered, the first national consortium dedicated to the IV range (fruit, vegetables, packaged and ready-to-eat fresh vegetables). A Consortium born from the collaboration of Almeda, Ambruosi & Viscardi and Ortoverde, three companies specialized in first and fourth range products, which are based respectively in Sicily, Marche and Lombardy.
«The creation of the Opi Consortium is strategic for all partners but also for customers – explains Edoardo Leone, CEO of Almeda, a Sicilian company that produces and markets salads and vegetables under the Naturizia brand -. The location in different geographical areas will allow us to cover the entire national territory. In fact, we will follow the logic of territorial proximity for the delivery of retail stores (retailer’s brand) to distribution brands. Each of us will field activities and decades of experience. We are talking about three solid companies able to expand their production capacity according to needs, ensuring freshness and quality with an eye also to the environment. This latter aspect is very dear to Almeda which boasts a cutting-edge production plant oriented towards environmental sustainability to offer a healthy product ».
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The strategic choice is to create a uniform and homogeneous product throughout Italy, through the synergy between the member companies that will maintain full autonomy. The objective of the Opi Consortium is to activate a partnership for the supply of private label products to large-scale distribution to ensure national coverage and extremely rapid deliveries. Customers will be able to count on a single commercial and administrative interlocutor, with the availability of 3 production sites active in different geographical areas covering the entire Peninsula. «The Consortium places strategic realities side by side in the sector united by the same values and objectives – underlines Nicola Ambruosi, CEO of Ambruosi & Viscardi, leader in the production and processing of fresh-cut salads for over 30 years -. Each of the partners represents an indispensable and fundamental piece of a system in which collaboration is the added value. We aim for high, controlled and continuous quality standards. The cornerstones of our initiatives are maximum quality, respect for the environment, energy self-sufficiency and a closed supply chain ».
In terms of sustainability, the Consortium will have solar energy production plants with 2.65 Mwh of green energy produced, will ensure the recovery of production waste destined for the production of electricity and process water reused for irrigation use, will make use of to eco-transport with electric and methane-fueled vehicles, will propose sustainable packaging. «Attention to nature is one of the cornerstones of our company – says Arnaldo Amiti, managing director of Ortoverde, an agricultural company that deals with the cultivation, processing and transformation of fruit and vegetables-. It is essential to guarantee the hygiene and healthiness of the products through prevention systems and control methods of the critical phases of the production process, to ensure the fulfillment of all the obligations relating to the safety and legality requirements of the products, as well as its responsibility towards consumer health “.