The year 2017 is particularly special for Emiliana Imballaggi as the company will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is a milestone anniversary, a reason to be proud not only for the whole company but also for the Reggio Emilia area and Fabbrico, the village where this solid and thriving enterprise was founded and has grown.
Let’s take a look back at the crucial stages in the company’s history, starting in 1967, the year in which Dante Vezzani, who had worked at Landini Trattori and had become interested in packaging for shipping spare parts, decided to draw on that experience and, along with Rodolfo Landini, set up Società Emiliana Imballaggi. And so the company was founded in a period of extraordinary industrial development for the local mechanical engineering, automation and automotive industries, which was also boosted by the construction of the new Brenner motorway.
After producing standard plywood crates for the first few years, the company soon began to focus its attention on more innovative products made abroad. This led to the creation, in the 1970s, of the first Italian foldable crates under the Emiliana Imballaggi brand name, which eliminated empty spaces during transport, saving a huge amount of space and reducing costs for customers. Later on, locking hooks began to be used instead of rivet guns, and since then the company has continued to improve its products, international certifications, production processes and environmental protection policies. The result is plain for all to see: now an international enterprise made up of several companies, with a group turnover of 14 million in 2016, more than 100 employees, a cutting-edge production process – Lean Manufacturing – it continues to strive for excellence. But where do these results and such a dynamic approach come from?
All three generations of entrepreneurs have passed on to one another the ability to anticipate the needs of various local industries when it comes to packaging, as well as the ability to continually develop their offerings while remaining true to the fundamentals of shipping. The value of the goods, and therefore of the customer’s company, remains the same as long as the goods are delivered undamaged and in working order to their recipient. Wooden and plywood crates are getting smarter: safe, easy to inspect, customisable, streamlined. Our custom products are designed according to the features of the product and specific conditions for storage and transport by land, air and sea.
The Fabbrico site was expanded over the last decade (and now covers an area of 35,000 square metres), the international sales network has been strengthened, and the product range has been widened to include Velapack, the Vikontainer modular system, E-box and E-blok.
2014 was yet another strategic year: EMI PACK LOGISTIC was established, a company specialising in the packaging and shipping of high-tech goods and critical transport issues. By teaming up with an external partner specialising in packaging for dangerous goods, the company is able to fully meet the demand for custom and on-demand industrial packaging.
Not to mention its strong commitment to protecting the environment, which reflects a much deeper sense of responsibility that goes beyond our local community: the wood used in its departments is PEFC-certified; at the Fabbrico headquarters a biomass power plant has been operating since 2010, which transforms wood waste into energy, while a photovoltaic system ensures that the buildings are thermally self-sufficient.
Unfortunately, last year, just as we were about to celebrate this milestone, our founder Dante Vezzani passed away: his memory and resourcefulness are still very much alive and will be cherished by all of us as we mark this anniversary. The best way to acknowledge the merits and work of those who came before us is to take action today so that we can provide tangible value and pave the way for the future. In this very symbolic year, we have a new product to offer: the new E-SIX crate, which we will soon bring to market! We are therefore excited about this launch and would like to thank the entire community, the institutions and all our customers, suppliers and employees who have been instrumental in our company’s success. We are also very grateful to all the people who, with great strength and determination, have worked at Emiliana Imballaggi over the last five decades. Their dedication and far-sightedness are what made this historic and memorable anniversary possible today.