Interview with Angelo Benedetti, President of Unitec S.p.A.

Angelo Benedetti, President of Unitec S.p.A., answered some questions during Fruit Logistica 2013. The pictures show Mr. Benedetti, the press conference and a view of the stand.Mr. Benedetti, this economic crisis seems determined to drag on. After a particularly grim 2012, 2013 doesn’t seem to be going much better. What strategies does Unitec have to survive these difficult times? Angelo Benedetti:"I believe that the current state of crisis is due, in addition to evident and objective socio-economic factors, even in good measure to a loss of moral and ethical values of our business model, combined with a widespread drop in credibility for those sectors that have established their business only on the dynamics of a financial nature.At this time, characterized by a worrying loss of employment and a sharp contraction in consumption, it is essential to ensure an injection of social security and business credibility to put in motion the flywheel of trust. We are not yet out of the tunnel of the crisis, but there are Italian companies that come together and move in the right way, with courage investing in research and innovation, advanced design and internationalization: I think UNITEC is one of these, with its 85% sales developed outside the country and the approval that our technologies collect on fresh fruit and vegetables sector, extremely competitive."In a global context characterized by recession, with what budget UNITEC closed 2012?Angelo Benedetti:"2012 has been closed to the satisfaction of UNITEC which saw a 40% increase their revenue, so come to 40 million euro. In order to structure and organize better the offer of our technologies even in the most distant countries we decided to open our own office in the United States. With the utmost seriousness and concreteness, proud that our technologies are 100% manufactured by us, we signed and completed successfully more than 150 orders last year, ensuring full satisfaction and effective responses, especially in terms of cost reduction and greater efficiency in production processes, to the requests of customers that have extremely varied needs, deriving from the different products they process and from their different operating methods.”So how has 2013 started for your group? Since exports went so well for you in 2012, are you planning further expansion on foreign markets?Angelo Benedetti:“2013 has begun very positively for our Group, with the acquisition of a large number of orders derived from a growing interest in our technology: this allows us to look to the future with renewed confidence, while maintaining a positive level of employment in our plants. This items meets our attention liable to human resources active in the company, in an industrial landscape not easy from the point of view of employment. This fundamental strength is an incentive to further broaden the horizons and propose in new markets, where our commitment to improve post-harvest processes is evaluated positively and acts as a valuable "business card" of a business strategy constantly marked by the search technological solutions that improve process and costs’ reduction ."In terms of technologies, what are the plans for the future in terms of greater efficiency at lower cost?Angelo Benedetti:“We are a laboratory for original ideas that, almost always, we can translate into designs and new technologies to improve the main processes of the fruit and vegetables supply chain. Also for 2013 wefocus strongly on research and innovation to develop our business through the construction of new systems: in particular we are developing new machines for management of plastic boxes with folding sides and technologies for the internal and external quality selection of several fruit and vegetables varieties like apples, pears, cherries, citrus, hazelnuts, chestnuts and tomatoes.UNITEC designs and manufactures technologies of which is exclusive owner and, with its great experience, it can give personalized answers to specific requirements of the most demanding fruit andvegetables operators.”Your offer of machines for processing, sorting and selecting over 35 varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables make you one of the top international players in the post-harvest sector. What is the secret of your success?Angelo Benedetti:“There is no ‘magic formula’, just constant teamwork, genuine commitment and real availability to satisfy, in the best way, the changing demands of customers to be able to provide concrete and reliable answers to the market expectations.For example, for more than six years we have delivered every order on time, without delay, and we have also ensured a punctual and regular technical support, which is an important completion of our business strategy aimed at enhancing the relationship with the customer beyond the simple technologies supply.These result are due of daily work completed by the people who work in our team with devotion and enthusiasm, ready to work hard to improve the level of our offer to packing houses, from the  smallest to the largest.” UNITEC PROFILEUNITEC: unrivaled excellence in fresh fruit and vegetable handling systemsUNITEC S.p.A. is a company specializing in the design and manufacturing of systems and machinery for sorting, selecting and packing over 35 kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables.For nearly a century, UNITEC has been improving fruit and vegetable processing quality in countries all over the world, providing technology and services to the highest standard of reliability and profitability.Listening to the requirements of our clients and markets, designing solutions for increasing efficiency and reducing costs in handling processes: these concerns are at the heart of the mission of UNITEC, the only Italian company capable of fully designing and building technology spanning the whole handling process.The UNITEC group is organized into different operations units, each in charge of a key phase in the production sequence, right through to after-sales service and a modern help-desk channel.On the international level, UNITEC has a network of branches in some of the leading fruit- and vegetable-producing countries (France, Spain, Chile, Argentina) and a sales structure that permits it to meet the requirements in the 20+ countries in which it operates.As a leading company in its sector, UNITEC has ISO 9001 quality certification (2002), as well as OHSAS 18001 certification for management of safety in the workplace, and ISO 14001 certification for environmental management.UNITEC closed 2012 with annual sales of 40 million euros, and employs over 100 people.