With over 120 years of successful operations and growth behind it, Savino Del Bene is a leading Italian international shipping company, proudly providing exceptional shipping and logistics services customised to meet its client’s needs. Today, the company continues its reputation for constant evolution and embracing of change, with a substantial focus on connectivity, flexibility and personal relationships. QHSE Manager Sandro Pietramala explained to Richard Hagan the company’s operations.
Savino Del Bene’s history can be traced back to the turn of the twentieth century and a small office in Florence, Italy. Named after its founder of the same name, Savino Del Bene’s office specialised in providing transport to emigrants heading to the United States to make a new life.
Global growth milestones
T he fledgling company grew continuously and eventually saw the establishment of its first overseas office in New York City in 1977. Additional offices across the United States soon followed. South America was next, with Savino Del Bene opening an office in Brazil in 1994, after
which the company set its sights on the Far East, with various offices opening across Asia; first in China and then in Japan.
Back in the Americas, a series of acquisitions resulted in Savino Del Bene taking its place in 1988 as a multi national leader in the industry.
This trend of constant growth of its physical footprint to better serve customers has continued through to the present day. By 2023, Savino Del Bene had a worldwide presence of over 300 offices in 60 countries, giving it uniquely deep local knowledge of the customs and administrative regulations on all five continents.
In a demonstration of the ongoing pace of Savino Del Bene’s growth, by mid-2023 the company had celebrated the opening of a very large new warehouse in Toronto, Canada, and another in New Jersey, USA. Over the first few months of 2023, it also opened three new offices in Saudi Arabia and one in Sweden.
Cutting-edge IT
Savino Del Bene’s dedicated IT division ensures that the company always has the most cutting-edge track and trace, data, and management systems on the market today. “We have internally developed
software programs that cover every aspect of the shipping process,” QHSE Manager Sandro Pietramala said: “our applications have been specifically tailored towards integration with the internal installations and cloud services of our other providers.
“The main services offered by our systems are advanced track and trace, purchase order management, an online booking platform, a warehouse
management system, e-Commerce, and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) capabilities.”
Savino Del Bene’s complete IT operat ions are managed and operated by the IT division, employing 70 skilled developers and programmers. This team ensures that Savino Del Bene is always able to provide the most flexible connectivity and API options for the company’s clients. Consequently, Savino Del Bene’s operations are seamlessly integrated with all of its biggest clients around the world –including major fashion houses in Europe.
Supply chain sustainability
Mr Pietramala explained that although Savino Del Bene does not directly own any aircraft or vehicles, sustainability is still
a major priority for the company: “As an international freight forwarder, we recognise that our business activities have a significant impact on the environment and, therefore, the climate. Since we are freight forwarders, most of the emissions linked to our activities derive from our use of third-party services.
“For this reason, one of the aspects we are investing heavily in is ‘green procurement’ or recognising and selecting suppliers on the basis of their sustainability credentials.”
Savino Del Bene is committed to reducing its environmental impact by offering sustainable solutions and using resources responsibly. Therefore, in addition to its green procurement criteria, it is f ocused on two other macro-areas for the
reduction of pollution and waste in a manner that is compatible with available company resources. Those areas are emissions calculation and environmental protection.
The emissions calculation process involves ongoing detailed emissions analysis of Savino Del Bene’s supply chain, with reference to the EN 16258 standard (the European standard for calculating and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from transportation). This programme aims to improve the company’s efficiency and environmental performance. Its environmental protection programme is also a substantial one. By mid-2023, two major solar PV rooftop installations on company warehouses are due to be completed. The energy generated from those
installations will be used to power electric vehicles. “We have greatly increased our efforts to identify and adopt innovative solutions and technologies in order to reduce waste and emissions within our company premises,” Mr Pietramala said. “By communicating our environmental policy to all of our suppliers, we want to be recognised as a reliable partner for the development of efficiency projects that can only be implemented with collaborations between ourselves and our customers.”
Competitive flexibility
As one of the world’s largest freight forwarders, Savino Del Bene is able to offer its customers an unrivalled level of flexibility.
In one example of this, the company received an urgent request for assistance from a major fashion house client in Italy. An expensive dress had to be hastily flown to New York for a high-profile event. Savino Del Bene sprang into action with a creative solution: one of its staff members personally transported the dress in a travel bag, flying from Italy to New York, ensuring that the dress reached its destination safely and on time.
During the height of Covid, Savino Del Bene was able to leverage its substantial resources and operational creativity to ensure that desperately needed medicine reached where it was required. “When most of our competitors stopped work due to difficulties with
shipments, we decided to rent an aircraft to move pharmaceuticals from China to Europe,” concluded Mr Pietramala. “Most of our clients recognise our capacity and flexibility to find a solution today – not tomorrow. There’s no waiting around.”
In a complex world full of unexpected events, Savino Del Bene has positioned itself for growth through its people and its flexibility that, together, ensure a human touch in its customer relationships. Going into the future, the company looks forward to constant improvements in its information systems, so that it can continue to deliver to customers the excellent, person alised service for which it is famous.
