“Ours is a sector in which the country has always saved, has invested little and from an infrastructural point of view we are at the stone age”. More than expensive energy, the CEO of Grendi Costanza Musso looks with concern at the infrastructural backwardness of Italy. Her family company has introduced electric vehicles in Sardinian ports, installed photovoltaic panels on the warehouses of Cagliari and Opera, invested in railway intermodality. Born in Genoa in 1828 and still active in transport and logistics, the group has 136 employees and 70 million in growth revenues which partly reflect the inflation phenomenon.
Shall we start with the fuel prices?
“Difficult situation. From one year to the next, the price increases in the bunker have been in the order of 100% and this means that the impact on the cost of the line has gone from 30% to 50%. On the land side, the increase was 30%, as regards the supply of electricity to the warehouses, the increase is again 100%. Important figures, in short, which of course we were unable to pass on to customers for the same amount. The increase in turnover this year is partly linked to the inflation phenomenon, but the problem is that a lot of profitability has been lost ».
Do you defend yourself by installing photovoltaic panels on warehouse roofs?
«Investing in renewable energy has a double meaning: sustainable projects are carried out and a certain economic sustainability is also pursued. That said, this phase of energy tension is sustainable in the short term but not in the medium. Support should be given to small and medium-sized enterprises ».
Do you expect attention to the issue from the new government?
“I expect this government to understand how strategic logistics are for the competitiveness of the Italian economic system and to recognize the sector as a real industry. Without wishing to make a political speech, I find that Italy is a country with a singular vocation to defeatism. We had a government with a prime minister with national and international credibility, major development plans and 6.5% growth. With the fall prematurely it was not possible to close a series of important operations. I imagine that the next government will work in the wake and try to do useful things, but every lost day risks putting entire national sectors to the test, in such a complex and unpredictable international context ».
Are you pessimistic?
“I’m contractually optimistic, but let’s see what happens.”
The criticalities of freight transport in the North West of the country?
“They are important and Covid, more than war, has put them in full light. Ours is a sector in which the country has always saved. More than small-scale cabotage interventions, there is a need for an upgrade of the Italian railway, which has heavy constraints of lines, terminals and weight. Grendi is starting in recent weeks with a Modena-Marina di Carrara train pilot project, the distance is less than 300 km, but the industrial traffic is such that the investment in the end pays off. I would like to see a broad vision in the country, the ability to make a leap forward ».
Would your Bruco (Bi-level Rail Underpass for Container Operation) project be?
«Il Bruco is an electrified and automated conveyor belt that from the quay of Genova Voltri would carry the containers in the Novi Ligure area, with a 38 km tunnel that would allow to skip all the Genoese viaducts. Large ships of 20,000 TEU would arrive in this terminal. The Bruco would also allow the traffic that today passes through Rotterdam and Hamburg to be conveyed to Genoa. We have been talking about it since 2007, the project was studied with the Polytechnic of Turin, financed by the Compagnia di Sanpaolo, sworn by Rina. Today the work assumes an even greater importance because it would create an electrified and technologically advanced logistic system that would improve procurement times for the Po Valley industry with a consequent increase in the employment of logistics and the competitiveness of Northern Italy, allowing energy savings ” .
Why is it not taken into consideration?
“This is a country incapable of having long-term dreams even today when there are funds from the NRP and they are asking us to spend them.”
The logistics of the North West?
«The truck part has gone into crisis, the motorways can’t hold up, the drivers aren’t there, the times are impossible. The train is the answer, the railway must be developed throughout the country and with distances of more than 300 kilometers ».
In 2021 Grendi became a benefit company. What does it mean?
«It is an evolved model of a sustainable and regenerative company, which starts by changing a legal form, inserting sustainability goals in the statute. We have chosen three objectives: the environment, people and interdependence, namely the growth of the territories in which we operate. We have embarked on a path that will lead us to obtain an international certification. Currently our score is 72 out of 200, from 80 onwards we will be able to obtain certification ».
One of the points is gender equality, is it sensitive to the issue?
“I made it a mission. I am president of Wistaa Italy, the women’s association of shipping and logistics that works on empowerment. And I carry on the same concept in all areas in which I move, including the association of the Knights of Labor, where women are very little represented ».
Grendi has shared gender leadership, you and her brother Antonio are both ad.
«For 25 years we have shared a true co-leadership where everyone puts their talent, we are different and complementary. In the Grendi group, the presence of women is 20%, because in the terminals the work is clearly male, but as many as 40% of the top positions are held by women: financial director, human resources manager, terminal manager of Cagliari, transport manager for Northern Italy and purchasing office manager are women ».
Does machismo still exist?
“Absolutely yes: everything is more difficult for a woman.”
An episode that you remember?
“Several years ago, we had a time charter contract with the shipowner Matacena. We had to ask him for a surety and I went to get him signed. I arrive and Matacena says to me: ‘Did they send her? But I’ve never dealt with a woman… ‘. I decided to transform a weakness into a strength: ‘You do me a great honor, I will put it on my curriculum: first woman to deal with Cavalier Matacena’. The contract was signed with mutual satisfaction ».