Sacmi with the local community for 105 years

On 30 November, Sacmi celebrated 105 years in business together with almost 5,000 guests. A celebration open to the local community that included a 13-stop tour of the Imola plant (Bologna) to bring participants into contact with the vital centres of the company's operations and explore the sources of its products, from the Rigid Packaging laboratory to the industrial presses assembly and testing department.

An opportunity to introduce visitors to some of the lesser-known places of the company’s headquarters, such as the machining department, 5,000 square meters of technology where metal parts and tools (for example the moulds for cap presses) are made with micrometric precision. Also in the spotlight was the evolution of quality control systems, now based on artificial intelligence as a fundamental ally to simplify the work of operators and to further develop processes towards repeatable and worry-free quality production. Many activities dedicated to the guests’ families enriched the programme, also including an area in the company canteen specially set up to allow young people to experience first-hand the challenges of sustainability, automation, artificial intelligence in a fun way and the older ones to follow up on the knowledge acquired, completing the actual tour and watching the machines in operation.

All this required a great team effort, with the active involvement of employees, an effort that contributed to the success of the event and represented, among other things, a great opportunity for Sacmi staff, their families and the members of the local community to meet and discuss. Over 100 volunteers contributed to the organisation and management of access and the guided tours. "It was a wonderful day of sharing and celebration on such an important occasion for us. We have been able to work as a team, fully grasping the objective of this event, which is to bring as many people as possible to discover our world and thus strengthen the deep ties between our company and the local community," underlined Paolo Mongardi, president of Sacmi.

As an ideal end of the 105th anniversary celebrations, on 2 December, the exact day Sacmi was founded, the book "Sacmi: dalla bottega all’industria. Origini di una straordinaria esperienza cooperativa” (Sacmi: from workshop to industry. Origins of an extraordinary cooperative experience) was presented. At the company's Auditorium 1919, which was packed with visitors, the author Valter Galavotti, the former and current Sacmi employees and the regional and local authorities highlighted the "Sacmi model" as an asset of the city of Imola and a pillar of the industrial, economic and social history of the Emilia-Romagna region as well as of Italy as a whole.

"We are particularly proud to have turned the spotlight on this new and unprecedented interpretation of Sacmi's origins and its evolution from a small workshop to a large industrial company, while always maintaining strong ties with its origins and the local community. We are not only talking about the history of a company, of our history, but of the values and principles, as current as ever, of being a cooperative, thinking about the future and the next generations," commented Paolo Mongardi at the end of the celebrations.