A couple of years ago, we met Livio Torresan just before he finalized the acquisition of Incomac, a historical brand selling drying systems from Montebelluna, near Treviso, all over the world. The interview was an all-round portrait of an entrepreneur who started from scratch and was proud to owe nothing to anyone, having exclusively relied on his determination to carry on and the collaboration with his business partner Gino Santin, with whom he shared his business adventure.
“The world demands requirements, methods and deadlines typical of the so-called global village, in terms of product, communication, language and strategies. Incomac was born in a land where, until hundred years ago, people lived on farming. This activity is the best expression of our values, that keep us close to our origins, with a practical attitude and the will to make. We are committed to internationalization as relates to market relations, communication and marketing. We still have a lot to do in this respect, as we are better at acting than speaking, but this is not enough, because you must be able to communicate the intrinsic value of your enterprise to customers.
We are living in a period that requires to be resilient, to identify quickly what is going on in order to adapt decisions and behavior, finding opportunities even in the most difficult situations, as the world is not stopping even during a pandemic…”.
It’s a bold statement…
“It’s essential to have such vision and determination, I really believe this approach has helped us close 2019, our first year at Incomac, with 1.8 million revenues.
We are working hard to increase our skills and our capacity, and figures prove this. We have invested and will continue to invest in the “second life” of Incomac, a brand that has always had an excellent reputation and a reliable, credible product.
Our future will be built on two key pillars. One is the capacity to innovate, for which we have started a collaboration with the Industrial Engineering Department of the Padua University, working together to understand how we can improve the performance of a drying chamber.
The other key pillar is distribution, i.e. the development of “strong presence” in markets where we have had an established activity for a long time, or laying new foundations in markets where we are growing and we know we can achieve better results: with direct presence in strategic markets, we can enjoy the benefits of business continuity, avoiding the ups and downs that make it more difficult to run a company.
We will start from France, where we have been operating for thirty years, opening a sales office to support our customers with local operations. Then more steps will follow, not only in Europe. We also want to expand overseas, as we need to be present and effective in new destination markets, and if you don’t have someone to support sales locally, our know-how is useless”.
A challenging decision.
“Sure, but do you see any alternative? We acquired Incomac and approached an industrial sector we did not know, but we considered it very interesting, potentially. We are “re-founding” the company, focusing on the topic of “discipline”, namely a clear and straightforward method that positively drives ideas, people and actions. We must have clear targets, a shared plan of action, if we want to make the most of our efforts, focusing our actions, all together, on the goals we have identified, with no deviations or uncertainty”.
Always steering towards innovation?
“Innovation can have multiple facets, it can involve products, processes and awareness: the result of our actions cannot rely on good chance. We must be aware, we must take the decisions we believe will bring the desired results. The more we are aware of our actions and our possibilities, the more we can turn challenges into opportunities, as we are seeing in this year with this terrible pandemic…
All of this, as I mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, is supported by effective marketing and communication: we are preparing a new catalog, a new website, with an initiative that will help anyone interested in our business and our products understand what we can do for them”.
It’s not easy to re-invent yourself…
“Drying is a mature process to remove moisture: there are not big margins for revolution. So, there is no other way than leaving your comfort zone and accepting that innovation happens outside the drying chamber, in the surrounding area, in the elements and procedures that lie outside the traditional drying space…
Another big challenge is the creation of a community: there’s much talking about sharing and experiential marketing, and it might be very interesting to interact with customers and share specific knowledge, creating a network of expertise and skills to generate continuous improvement. We have much time ahead, but we cannot afford wasting it”.
