Once again, people shoot for intimidating purposes and, also in this circumstance, the Callipo Group, an important production company, is in the sights among the oldest – it has just passed 111 years of life – of Calabria and the entire South. The latest episode in San Pietro Lametino, an industrial area south of Lamezia Terme, where, in the night between last Saturday and Sunday, shots were fired. The alarm was immediately raised and Pippo Callipo, at the helm of the food brand known nationally and beyond, especially for the processing and canning of tuna, reported the incident to the State Police, who started investigations.
The seventy-seven-year-old entrepreneur, leader of the group based in Pizzo, in the province of Vibo Valentia for over half a century, struggles to hide discomfort and bitterness two days after the incident. Twice candidate for the presidency of the Calabria Region, then regional councilor, a position from which he resigned to return to the company, for Callipo this latest criminal episode represents more or less a sort of “déjà vu”.
In the past, in fact, there have been similar episodes, regularly reported, which however have not had the slightest impact on his determination. “We are moving forward – he says – even if we will necessarily have to face the situation on the basis of the new difficulties and new costs for safety. An episode of this kind, however, certainly cannot be ignored, even if it disturbs us and causes a certain concern”. “What has occurred – Callipo continues – cannot stop us either because of our history, my more than fifty-year history and, before me, my father and my grandfather, both for the responsibility we have towards the almost 500 people who work with us. What bothers me most, however, is seeing that the area is equipped with a modern video surveillance camera system which, however, does not work having been tampered with following some thefts. The plant remains deactivated also due to the fact that the entity that manages it does not have the necessary money for maintenance. In the past there have been some thefts attributable to local petty crime. But it was only a case of tampering with some cabins to steal copper and electrical wires.”
The declarations of solidarity shown to Callipo and his business group by local and regional politicians and institutions are bipartisan, but also from the productive world and from associations. Among those who expressed closeness to Callipo were some parliamentarians and the Undersecretary of the Interior Wanda Ferro.
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