Bornthe last five years it has invested 33 million euros in innovation and sustainable technology and another 20 million are planned over the next three years, to inject efficiency in a sector such as cured meats and meat where the winner is always, however , the care for tradition. And despite the epochal crisis and the difficulties in exporting in the last pandemic year, it closed the 2020 budget with a 3% increase in turnover, to 290 million euros, and an expansion of the workforce by 4% (542 employees today) without ever make use of one hour of layoffs.
The numbers of the Imolesi Agricultural Workers Cooperative, today the Clai Group, stand out, ready to celebrate 60 years of activity (it was founded in 1962) consistent and faithful to the original recipe: “Growing in small steps and continuously, with the goal of safeguarding and passing on assets from generation to generation, aware that everything we do goes beyond us and that our heritage is made up first of all of people and passion “, explains Pietro D’Angeli, general manager of Clai , also born in 1962 like the company, joined the cooperative at the age of 26 and one of the 280 members of breeders and workers committed today to growing the business with an eye to the future, to whom will then have to take over.
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Sustainability means precisely this for Clai: every action must go far. The biogas plant built in 2012 in the main plant in Sasso Morelli to eliminate slaughtering waste and sewage by transforming them into energy, the photovoltaic panels above each production site, the new cogeneration plant being optimized in the Faenza factory, the rooms multifunctional for training and R&D open to university students: these are all investments that aim to improve business processes to increase the well-being of people and the environment. So much so that Clai was considered the best Italian company in the meat and cured meats category, among the 2 thousand monitored in different sectors in our country, for reputation on sustainability, winning the title “Green Stars 2021” and the maximum score, according to the study conducted by ‘German Institute for Quality and Finance, in collaboration with the Hamburg Institute for Management and Economic Research.
Active on the meat and cured meats market with the Clai and Zuarina brands (Parma raw ham, produced in Langhirano) and in the milk and cheese sector with the Faggiola brand, the Imola-based food company controls the entire supply chain, from fields to table and reacted coherently to the blows of the pandemic by playing offensive, or by anticipating investments: «By April 2020 we had lost 34% of volumes – says D’Angeli – and the use of social safety nets was evaluated. Then with the partners we instead decided to take the bull by the horns. We used the past leave, the permits and anticipated the rebranding project and the expenses in the program. The new logo is the result of the work carried out by the team of Rob Janoff, the creator of the Apple brand, which has given us a more modern and captivating image and has greatly raised our positioning not only in Italy, but also abroad. , which today weighs 20% but is growing a lot, especially in Japan, Asia, the United States, Canada ». Lockdown and the health emergency did not stop the construction sites in progress for one day: «We have just completed the renovation of the headquarters in Sasso Morelli, with a management center and classrooms for training and collaboration with universities. The students of Food Science and Technology of the University of Bologna are our first recruitment pool, we have included five in these weeks. In the year of Covid, not only did we not fire or make use of Cig but we hired 21 young people, of which 8 are recent graduates », explains the CEO. In fact, there is the “hand” of a graduate student from Bologna, later included in Clai’s R&D team, behind the new salami without preservatives (nitrates and nitrites) launched in March, “Imola 1962”.
Now 20 million are ready for new investments, focused on the factory for the slaughter of fresh pork and beef in Faenza. “It takes courage to keep the bar straight these days – concludes D’Angeli – and to look to the future with responsibility, it is not news but it is only in this way also in this 2021 we are able to invest in development and we will grow by a further 3- 4% “.