Enrico Grassi, E80 Group’s founder and president, was awarded as “Visionary Leader” on the occasion of the latest edition of Gulfood Manufacturing show, held in the United Arab Emirates November, 8- 10.
More than a thousand top food&beverage industry leaders met at the Dubai World Trade Centre for the event dedicated to innovation, digital transformation and sector megatrends. There were five areas of focus: ingredients, processing, packaging, supply chain solutions, and automation.
E80 Group, the multinational based in Viano (Reggio Emilia), with 14 branches around the world, participated with its very own stand in the “Packaging” pavilion to present its tailored intralogistics solutions for factories and distribution centres, and its automatic laser guided vehicles (AGVs/LGVs), the company’s core business.
At the “Gulfood Manufacturing Industry Excellence Awards 2022” ten prizes were awarded to innovators of the industry, for products and technologies that made exceptional contributions to the sector.
President Grassi was awarded as “Visionary Leader” thanks to his activity as a pioneer of Industry 4.0: he promotes continuous innovation and sustainability and inspires a company capable of generating value inside and outside the Group. This is the profile of an entrepreneur active in the development of intralogistics since 1980, in the mechatronics valley of Emilia, and forerunner of an interconnected and safe Smart Factory in 1992.
Since then, the innovative drive of E80 Group, created from the merging of Elettric80 and BEMA, has culminated in the registration of 30 patented systems, in 40 years of business.
Today over half of the turnover of E80 Group (323 million euro, 2021) comes from the Food&Beverage industry, with brands including Barilla, National Food Products Company, Constellation Brands, Perrier, Evian, Carozzi, Hellenic Dairies, Acqua Sant’Anna and many more.
The innovation of E80 Group combines its development goals and its customer’s sustainability goals. For example, E80 Group’s integrated systems applied to Barilla smart factory support the energy consumption reduction strategy pursed by the Parma-based company, consistent with its commitment to spearheading the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Thanks to improved product management at the distribution center, Barilla has eliminated around 3.000 truck journeys a year to external warehouses previously used. This strategy has reduced carbon dioxide emissions, cut lighting costs by 40% and heating costs by 20%.
The application of E80 Group solutions in intralogistics flows, automated warehouses and innovative picking systems has enabled Carozzi in Chile to increase its delivery capacity by 35% compared to previous systems, by optimizing existing warehousing space with 98% saturation.
“Gulfood Manufacturing is one of the most significant global shows of the F&B industry and we’ve been participating for years – President Grassi explains. We are able to compare ourselves to global leaders, thanks to a truly remarkable team work, which would have never been possible without the expertise and strong skills of over 1,100 employees. This heritage has enabled us to install and develop over 350 smart factories, 2,500 robotized systems, 6,500 AGVs/LGVs and, from 2016 alone, over 40 integrated high-density warehouses, all managed by the SM.I.LE80 software platform. With these numbers we are present on five continents; our participation in Gulfood was yet another opportunity to confirm the global vision of our Group “.
