of Giampaolo Colletti   @gpcolletti

If there is a distinctive element of the companies of excellence of this Emilian triangle between Modena, Bologna and Ferrara, it is in the strategic balance between being artisanal and being industrial. The artisan vocation is breathed in the tailor-made solutions. The industrial vocation is in pioneering internationalization. This is the story of Pactur, a family-run business engaged in the production of packaging machines for shrink film, therefore able to tighten with heat. The company was founded in 1986 and has been exporting since its inception. So today it is not surprising that it is better known abroad than in Italy. “Then the domestic market also developed and today it oscillates between 30% and 50%, but the specificity has been from the very beginning that selling in the world: from Europe to South America, from Russia to Australia and up to ‘Far East. At the time there was not such an international vision, which is why we were pioneers, “says Paola Dozza, partner and sales manager of the Pactur company. The winning strategy was to be multi-localized and multi-market, breaking down the boundaries between sectors and thus ensuring continuity. «You have to be frightened when a market takes over, because it could prove dangerous if things change. This is why our turnover is made up of many different orders, all important but none fundamental. On the other hand, we live off our strengths and our finances and therefore if we did not do so we would not be able to afford a possible crisis in the geographic or sectoral market “, explains Dozza.

Time factor. To understand this entrepreneurial project linked to the packaging supply chain, we must move to Zola Predosa, twenty thousand souls in the metropolitan area of ​​Bologna nestled between the plains and hills, considered the gateway to Val Samoggia, about twelve kilometers from the DueTorri. We are in 1986 and the intuition of Andrea Turra, who founded it, is to give a concrete answer to the lively pack district, creating cutting-edge packaging machines. Everything starts from the assembly and then reaches the final delivery of the product. The initial investment was 5 million old Italian lire. But what has made the difference is having been forerunners in the market, selling many manual machines. All this made it possible to finance research on automatic machines. A constant growth, we said before. A few years later, precisely in 1992, the company took over the carpentry in Zola Predosa which cut and folded the sheets on behalf of Pactur. “At the time it was a visionary approach. There was and always has been a great team game. In addition to Turra, one of the architects of our success is Claudio Tondi, still our workshop manager to whom we recognize the development of electronics in our machines, “Dozza recalls. Today Pactur is a 100% made in Italy producer. The company employs twelve people for a turnover of 1.5 million euros. All the bagging machines do the same type of packaging, that is, they seal the cellophane around the product and when required they tighten the bag to the product, so that it becomes a sort of second skin. Time must be read through the lens of continuity and evolution. “The demand for packaging machines has changed over the years, with a concentration that has shifted from manual and semi-automatic to automatic ones and with electronics that play a more strategic importance today,” says Dozza.

Italian pride. “Create, improve, support”: behind these three actions is summarized the mission. “It means being small, but having great cutting-edge solutions. We work in a market where margins are low, so we must necessarily identify solutions with performing machines. This is why our workshop prototype department looks for solutions that can distinguish us from the others, “Dozza points out. The development of the market has multiplied the competition, especially from the Far East, and all this has hit the lower end, made up of those machines with which Pactur was born. Here then is the escape route to that electronics that make the difference. Innovation is aimed at simplification, with high Italian quality. And for Dozza it is a pride to hear customers at the fair comment on the beauty and functionality of our machines, assuming that they must necessarily be Italian. Then there is the brand of the entire Pactur range, which sums up the philosophy. It is LadyPack and must be literally translated as “lady machine”. “It is an expression of admiration that you get when you look at something that is very beautiful, refined, of quality. This is what we say about a “lady bicycle” or a “lady house”. It’s the top product, ”Dozza says. For her over the years the passion has remained unchanged. The future is made up of electronics, without neglecting mechanics and bodywork, that is, the aesthetics that are the seal of the company. The machine can pack books or sandwiches, but it must be beautiful, meeting all packaging needs with multipurpose models. So the challenge is to build better performing and at the same time more versatile solutions, which can package products of different sizes. Always innovate, never stop.

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Giampaolo Colletti

@gpcolletti