Via Panseri 90
28100 Novara - Italy
+39 0321 476094
info@valgrofood.com
- Home
- STRATEGIC HUB
Our operational headquarters is an integral part of the Novara Intermodal Centre (CIM).
Thanks to constant improvement and sustainability in the handling of goods, the freight terminus is a structure with a significant impact, particularly focussed on the environment and the quality of life.
Located in a strategic position, at the intersection between the Lisbon-Kiev European Corridor 5 and the Genoa-Rotterdam Corridor 24, the CIM is a natural terminus of the freight line with North Europe, which transits through Switzerland and uses the Simplon and Gotthard Passes, and is also in an advantageous position for the France/Italy axis.
Our logistics warehouse is one of the most modern refrigerated hubs in Piedmont.
In a barycentric position between Aosta and Verona, the large structure has a huge loading and unloading area which makes manoeuvring and parking vehicles easy, and is equipped with 9 loading/unloading dock bays. The bays give direct access to the indoor refrigerated area, covering about 450 m2, where the temperature is maintained between 4 and 10°C: here, the consignments are handled and loaded onto refrigerated trailers, or sent for storage in the new temperature-controlled cold room (anterooms between 6° and 9°C and cold room cells between 0° and 3°C), measuring around 200 m2, or to the room-temperature covered area of about 250 m2.
The timeline and the people
In 1957 Sergio Valsesia started a small business collecting milk from farms in the Novara area.
The milk was collected in iron and aluminium churns, then transferred into the classic glass bottles for delivery to homes. Sergio remained in the company until 1987.
In 1967 they purchased the first of their second-hand tanker trucks, with the circumspection of those embarking on an adventure without losing sight of the horizon, despite riding the crest of the wave of the favourable period of national economic growth.
In 1980 Sergio’s son Tino Valsesia joined the company: he was 27 years old and was immediately captivated by the style of work dictated by the family business. Organization is fundamental for preserving goods in the best possible way, and for optimizing delivery times and methods of overland transport. Tino understood that the sector of collecting milk had limited potential for growth, so he suggested diversifying the type of service, and so they invested in cold rooms.
1997 saw the family’s first major collaboration, with the IGOR company, a local brand that produces gorgonzola. IGOR needed to expand its production plants and found the Valsesia family was the ideal supplier for transporting the cheese to its new warehouses. And so, the Valsesias purchased their first refrigerated isothermal truck, with which they started delivering on behalf of IGOR and Invernizzi, a dairy company founded in 1908 and famed for the excellent quality of its Italian-made products.
However, they continued to collect milk from the farms and deliver door-to-door, venturing as far as the Lodi area, in a zone famous for the agricultural and production density associated with the precious foodstuff that is suitable for a multitude of different processes. Gradually the geographical area expanded to include most of Italy, and more vehicles were required. Some were bought new and others second-hand, carefully calibrating their investments, so as to plan and achieve commercial results that allowed – once again – reinvestment in equipment, vehicles, and human resources.
In the meantime, IGOR consolidated its market position, and the support of the transport services offered by the Valsesia family became more and more important and systematized. The company embarked on the path of innovation, which is expressed today in authentic digital technology: for example, remote temperature control and vehicle assistance that observe the standards imposed by the EU Euro VI legislation relating to polluting emissions.
Later, Tino’s son Matteo Valsesia joined the company. Matteo had been “hanging around the yard and the loading bays” since the age of 14, getting the archetypal in-the-field apprenticeship. This was important and effective training, because only by experiencing the internal and external organizational dynamics at first hand was it possible to understand their complexity and, over the years of theoretical and practical experience, develop the correct management models. Today, that is his role, and it is of fundamental importance to prevent the mechanism from seizing up: designing routes, assigning resources, checking methods, and recalculating new and unforeseen operating schemes as the need arises.
Franca Valsesia is an equally important figure in the management of the Valgrofood company. A sister of Tino (she gave up the idea of driving the company vehicles herself because she was engaged in professional activity outside the world of logistics), in 2004 she took her place behind the desk of the Valgrofood administration and control office, and she takes her role very seriously indeed.
As she herself says “mistakes are not even contemplated” and this phrase speaks volumes about the level of constant attention that Franca applies in the day-to-day management of the company, and in medium and long-term forecasting, placing it in a perspective of constant development, but always under control.
