Paolo Salvato: Fiocchi has a lot of room for growth
In January he became the new CEO and a few weeks later he went to represent the company at the SHOTShow in Las Vegas, USA, and at the end of February he was already waiting for another exhibition in Europe: the IWA in Nuremberg. How does he evaluate his new position and his first weeks at the helm of the Fiocchi Group? He answered our questions at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas.
In January you became the new CEO of the Fiocchi Group. What are your first impressions in this position?
First of all, it is a great privilege for me to have the opportunity to lead this company. We have great shareholders. In particular, CSG's majority shareholders can provide us with an important strategic partner to build our long-term strategic plan. CSG as an industry group can provide us with more stability in the long term and we can have an important partner to build our vision for the next year.
Can you describe this vision of yours?
My view of the company is that we need to build on three main pillars in the coming years. The first is growth and its sustainability. The company has grown rapidly in recent years. We now need to consolidate this growth to ensure that all production in the supply chain can follow.
So we need sustainable growth. The second pillar is to increase our competitiveness and the third is to develop our people, especially our talent.
What should help you grow?
The drivers of growth are many. We are leveraging the support we could have from CSG, which we already have. Our goal is to achieve market share growth for all three of our brands. At the Shot Show in the US, where I represented Fiocchi, I saw a lot of interest in our brands namely Fiocchi,
Basquiat & Pellagri, Lyalvale. All of them are very well known, trusted by customers and they want more of our products. Then, of course, we have to grow in all our domestic markets, but also around the world.
What do you plan to do to grow Fiocchi's competitiveness, which is the second pillar of your plan?
The basis is to consolidate the integration of Lyalvale, Baschieri & Pellagri into the Fiocchi Group. We still have many synergies within our operations that we need to tighten up. We need to consolidate our internal processes and procedures to make sure we are more efficient in the way we run our business. And thirdly, we need to make sure that we have all of our IT systems in place. We need to have these tools that support our operations. Our operations are growing, so we need to follow strong tools that the team can use to accelerate all of our internal and external operations.
You also mentioned staff development. What steps are you planning?
First, we need to make sure we invest in our talent. We also need to attract new talent.
To do this, we also need to improve the way we communicate internally and externally. New generations are entering the job market and we need to make sure that we are able to reach the new generation that is most sensitive to different topics.
You also mentioned IT systems and digitalisation in general. Are they also among your plans?
We need to continue the digital transformation. It encompasses all our systems, from manufacturing to marketing. Our dream, of course, is to be a data-driven company in the future, where we can collect all the data from direct customers, from distributors, and use that data with all the new tools with artificial intelligence, with machine learning that can give us all the information we need to deliver better products and meet our customers' needs. So overall, I see very strong potential for the Fiocchi Group for the years to come and I'm really happy to have CSG as our strategic industry partner.
The first event you attended with Fiocchi was the Shot Show in Las Vegas. How did you enjoy it?
It was my first time at it and I have to tell you it's an amazing experience, but what's most rewarding is meeting Fiocchi of America customers and getting their feedback that they are so passionate about Fiocchi. They like our brands, they want to continue to work with us and they want to push sales. We have a lot of room for growth, so let's get to it.
