Vi.VO Cellars event: successful cooperation model, "Strong in quality, authoritative in management"

This meeting represented an opportunity to learn in detail about Vi.VO Cantine's successful wine cooperation model, through the direct testimonies of the company's protagonists.

It was an opportunity to illustrate the cooperative model of Vi.VO through the direct testimonies of the President of Vi.VO Cantine, Prof. Corrado Giacomini, the CEO Franco Passador and the General Director of Bosco Viticultori , Paolo Lasagni.

The conference moderated by Fabio Piccoli , Managing Director of Wine Meridian, saw the special participation of Luca Castagnetti, founding partner of Studio Impresa and Filippo Bartolotta, well-known journalist, sommelier and wine educator who presented the new Prà dei Dogi line and conducted a Masterclass dedicated to the Prà dei Dogi line (Prosecco, Merlot and Pinot Grigio), Manzoni and Carmenere from Vigna Dogarina and Raboso Arzeri from Vivo.

The cooperation model of Vi.VO Cantine has allowed the company to achieve exceptional growth in turnover (41.6%) in 2022, thanks to the trust of its members, the increase in surface areas and contributions and investments in 4.0 innovations .

At the opening , Prof. Corrado Giacomini illustrated the vision and success of the Vi.VO Cantine cooperation model. He placed emphasis on the company's main objective: to create value and market positioning through business efficiency . He underlined the increase in surface areas and contributions, the diversification of sales channels, investments in innovations and the importance of member trust as the main drivers of the exceptional growth of this cooperative group: “The increase in size and differentiation of sales channels have been reached. And our members have faith in us. On the market, cooperation sells an excellent product and that is what consumers want. These results prove us right, we will continue in this direction."

CEO Franco Passador emphasized the importance of the investments of the Vi.VO Cantine Group in the areas of energy efficiency, reduction of environmental impact, production diversification and technological innovation for the transformation and conservation of the product: “We are convinced that to maintain these standards, there is a need to invest in innovation. Over the last 5 years we have invested around 20 million euros in product transformation and preservation technologies. We have 8 factories, rather than selecting a few, we have set ourselves the objective of investing in each one, to make them all grow".

Paolo Lasagni, General Director of Bosco Viticultori (bottling cellar, a strategic reality for promoting the marketing of the wines of the Vi.VO Cantine Group in Italy and around the world) highlighted the international vocation of the company which exports 80% of its bottles produced in over 30 global markets: “What's the message? The fact of being present in multiple markets allows us to have a global vision , this allows us to directly monitor the evolution of demand and verify the strategies of competitors. The positioning of certain products is based on these assessments and on our international dimension."

In the last 9 years, Bosco Viticultori's turnover has grown by triple digits (157%) , going from 36.6 million euros in 2014/15 to 94.2 million in 2022/23. The main markets are Italy, UK, USA, France and Belgium.

Luca Castagnetti, founding partner of Studio Impresa presented data and statistics from the wine sector, highlighting the current challenges of the market, including the general decline in sales. He underlined the importance of business organization and value management as central elements for the future success of cooperative companies.

“The Vi.VO Cantine Group has been able to keep two aspects in balance, on the one hand the defense of the members' profitability, on the other the development of the winery-company. The ratio between NFP (net financial position) and Ebitda (gross operating margin) reflects better values than the cooperative average (1.92 vs 3.35). This ratio expresses the level of debt of a company compared to its ability to generate flow. In essence, the Vi.VO Cantine Group is financially sound and its model is successful in terms of its ability to create value at the service of both the contributing shareholder and the winery-company".

Filippo Bartolotta, journalist, sommelier and wine educator shared his expertise by presenting the new Prà dei Dogi line and conducting a Masterclass dedicated to some emblematic wines from the range of Bosco Viticultori, Vigna Dogarina and Vivo: “The media often falls in love with particular stories , of sui generis characters and small artisan businesses, overshadowing the central importance of communities. Here we are faced with a real community made up of around 2,000 members. It is essential to fully understand the relevance of such a complex and stratified cooperative reality. His wines demonstrate a transparent attitude, they did not use shortcuts, no chips or barriques were used for aging. What does this mean? It means that either you bring home a certain quality or you don't survive. The concept of menos es mas inspired the choices of Vi.VO Cantine and these choices are reflected very well in the wines".

The Vi.VO Cantine Group event demonstrated that wine cooperation can be synonymous with excellence and efficiency , dispelling prejudices about the cooperative model and demonstrating the ability to thrive in a complex market.

In closing, CEO Passador specified short-term company orientations and prospects: “One of our future objectives concerns the desire to maintain high levels of quality and complexity, while at the same time decreasing the alcohol content of our wines by guiding the transformation through optimal use of physics"

The cooperative company is determined to maintain this direction and to preside over the markets with high quality products, always remaining attentive to consumer needs and developments in the wine sector.