Panificio Italiano is an independent bakery in Iver, Buckinghamshire. It is owned by businessman and artisan baker Piero Scacco, who has six decades of baking industry knowledge. The company boasts a fully automated, state-of-the-art factory producing wholesale baked goods. MD Adam Thompson explained more to Hannah Barnett.
ITi s a mark of true business acumen to emerge from a turbulent period stronger than ever. That has certainly been the case for Panificio Italiano as the company recovers from the instability of Covid.
The pandemic allowed the company to restructure and adjust; becoming leaner, more efficient and more profitable, according to MD Adam Thompson: “Covid became a massive advantage to us, because we hit the reset button and focused on what we’re good at: that is, what we can do, and how can we do it better.”
The automated method
Since Covid, everything Panificio Italiano produces is done at a large volume. Sub rolls and rolls are the main products, but the company also makes ciabatta, focaccia and brioche for big retailers. “Brioche is very popular at the moment,” Mr Thompson added. As part of its B2B model, Panificio Italiano
products can be found in Starbucks, Costa, M&S Café and Asda, to name a few. It also has several large contracts with airlines.
The full production line is controlled by a Cepi Silos system. It includes a four stage Sancassiano mixing carousel, producing 180 kilos every eight minutes, and a Koenig AW plant - designed for rolls and sub rolls –which can make up to 14,000 rolls an hour, depending on size and shape, from 30 grams to 160 grams.
“Although we have a large, automated line, we still have a good amount of flexibility through it,” said Mr Thompson. “As the business is growing, it allows us to be fluid.”
When the product comes out of the oven, it is moved into cooling towers and the trays run through a cleaning system via an automated process. “We can run that line with three people, from mixing all the way through to cooling,” Mr Thompson explained. “It’s really efficient. We also have five semi-automated lines that rely on operatives at some stages and are generally more manual. But we can run those lines with two or three people as well.”
Growth in the time of Covid
Between 2020 and 2021, Panificio Italiano saw a massive sales growth of 273%. That increased again by 33% the following year and the company is expecting 12.5-15% growth this financial year. The secret to this success was, according to Mr Thompson, snatching triumph out of adversity.
“We came out of Covid in a precarious place,” he said. “We had closed the bakery for 13 weeks. We had no main retail, as the airlines and sandwich shops were all closed. That was a big challenge for us. We had to decide whether we shut the bakery down for good.”
With some team restructuring, use of the UK furlough scheme and a reshaping of operations, the company pulled through stronger than ever. One of the ways it did so was by using its facilities in a different way.
“We moved some of the ambient product to the 750-pallet space freezer,” Mr Thompson explained. “That’s where
we saw a lot of the growth come from. Before Covid, we were making small volumes, 200 pieces of this and 400 pieces of that. That is not our business model anymore. We are much more efficient doing longer runs.”
The company can freeze a product within two hours of baking and cooling. “There is an assumption that fresh is best,” Mr Thompson said. “But as long a s it’s defrosted in a controlled environment,
there’s a strong argument that frozen is better, because it’s actually a lot fresher by the time it gets to the customers.
“Without Covid, we would never have been able to change the way the business works. It was the opportunity we needed. We still do a lot of ambient products, but they need to be done in volume. It can’t be 2,000 a day, because it’s just not worth the line startup: and efficiency is key to operations now.”
For its main business, Panificio Italiano deals with the major manufacturers, “They’re big customers of ours, with orders of considerable volume. And we are a supplier of choice as well, due to the quality of our product and reliability of our service
“We work collaboratively to build longterm relationships. We’ve been able to gain new customers in difficult situations. When the airlines were striking, we gained regular contracts because we were able to help customers out at short notice and go the extra mile.”
In a further contribution to efficiency, the company recently installed 415KW of solar panels on its extensive roof space. “It gives us about eight per cent of our
daily power requirement,” Mr Thompson explained. “But we use a lot of power due to the automated lines. So, it really does help. We’ve already seen the value of that in the first two months of the installation.” Last year, the company also recycled 94% of all waste it produced on site.
Empowering employees
Panificio Italiano invests in its highly valued staff by training them to be adept in the quality control of its goods and to be able to flag products that do not meet standards. The company runs daily tasting panels, to help employees understand the specifications of the products it is making.
“Everybody takes ownership and responsibility for what we’re producing,” Mr Thompson explained, “rather than just seeing it written on a piece of paper. It’s empowering. They know they are happy with it, so the customer is going to be happy with it too.”
For the last two years, Panificio Italiano has paid a profit-related bonus to all its s taff. Everybody receives the same
amount, whatever their position in the com pany, as Mr Thompson noted: “It serves as a fair bonus to recognise that we couldn’t do what we do without our employees.”
Another new initiative is a three-level pay structure for bakery operatives, allowing them to see a clear path up the career ladder to progress, if they so wish. As a result of these schemes, the company does not struggle with recruitment and retention.
“We believe what we’re doing is different,” Mr Thompson reflected. “I’ve been involved in a few meetings in various industry sectors, and I’m the only one in the room saying: ‘we’re not recruiting anybody, we’re fully staffed.’ We actually have a waiting list for people trying to get in.”
Part of the pride Panificio Italiano employees take in their work may be due to a trickle-down effect from the top, too. “I’m very lucky, because I love my job,” Mr Thompson concluded. “There are not many people that can say that. I’m left alone to run the business. Piero, the f ounder, is my mentor. I can speak to him anytime. He has so much experience and he treats me like family.
“And I am a people-person. I love watching employees grow and develop. I t’s really important to me, seeing people as passionate about what they do as I am.”
