We are about to celebrate an important anniversary this year: thirty years of history are a significant achievement for any companies. We would like to regard it, however, not as an arrival point, on the contrary, as a fundamental milestone of a story that has still to be written about. We are ready to face the future that we are looking at with serenity, due to our own experience, and with the same desire to take on new challenges and live the situations as they come. We are pleased to publish the interview to Michele Storci (image below), CEO of Storci SpA.
1) 2021 is the year of Storci’s 30th Anniversary. Is it also the occasion for an analysis?
I do not like taking the stock of our achievements, it is not part of my way of doing things.
I think that working reality, as many other realities, is always in progress.
This goal, that seemed so far away just some years ago, has certainly arrived earlier than I thought.
Today, the first thing that comes to mind is a great satisfaction. We have grown up, we have gone a long way together, from a small family-run business to a large Company, we have organized our structure and reached many objectives.
There is still a lot to do, however.
2) What does it mean for you being Anzio Storci’s son, a real great name of this sector?
It is a demanding legacy, to say the least. My father has had an essential role in the development of pasta-factories technology, as a matter of fact, he has been the true protagonist. He has witnessed its growth and actively participated in all the technological revolutions of that period in the pasta process. He has a professional past that is very difficult to equal, as we are talking of nearly seventy years of experience. To mark this personal and professional achievement, we have produced an interesting book based on interviews my father gave to the celebrated biographer Giancarlo Gonizzi. Today, as this work has finished and become a biography with the title “Kneading Work into Art”, I am, and we all are, very satisfied with it. I can say that my path and my experiences have been very different from those of my father, all leading to my current professional position. Times have drastically changed, today there is not that constant evolution/revolution existing in the past. I mean the uphill bend of innovation is not as step as it used to be.We are experiencing a different era withnessing a change mostly in consumption, not as much in technology.
3) Do you think you have taught your father something from a working viewpoint, his expertise notwithstanding?
No, I cannot make such a statement. I can say, however, that he has given my brother Simone and me a lot of freedom to operate, since the beginning he has delegated many tasks, letting us free to express ourselves, to experiment first-hand and sometimes, why not, to make and learn from our mistakes. I have been lucky to live in close contact with him, either practising our profession and our favourite sport. We share, for instance, the same passion for baseball that we pursued together for 10 years in the past, my father as a baseball official, me as a player.
4) We are experiencing a particular historical moment and are all waiting for something good and productive to happen sooner or later. Can you see any positive signs for the future of this sector?
Thinking positively is a must, regardless of the working sector and difficult times such as this one we are in. I can say that pasta and food sector is generally regarded as “essential” as it satisfies a fundamental necessity of people: nutrition.
Do not forget, moreover, that we are in Italy, a Country where pasta dominates the picture, since it is omnipresent on our tables. Consequently, there are all the prerequisites to feel optimistic.
5) What direction is Storci taking today? Are you still aiming at technological innovation or are you thinking of implementing the proposal for customer support services? What is the future way?
Storci has collected and made as his own all the knowledge of its founder and President. Today, the Company has more than 90 employees and everybody try to put into practice what Anzio taught in the past and is still teaching; not only are his advices about our plants and machinery but also about sales, sourcing or technology. Together with my brother and collaborators, we try to follow them as best as we can. As I previously said, the Company has changed and grown, though keeping that ability to adapt that is our key to success. The way to the future, being a sector with many competitors, is in the middle, between new ideas to be successfully applied and new markets for our lines. Our main goal is to make our machines more and more performant and easy to use. Moreover, Customer care services must be developed and focused on the Internet of Things (IoT), that many people talk about whereas we are already putting it into practice thanks to so many customized solutions. Pasta is a versatile product suitable for many variations like those for health enthusiasts that have been catching on in the last few years, resulting in pasta made of chickpeas, lentils, etc. We will be surely riding on the wave of innovations
with our Instant Pasta (pasta ready in 3 minutes, valid alternative to Asian noodles) because we have proved to have been forward-looking in pioneering this new trend.
We do not manufacture pasta, but we would like to facilitate with our machinery, at an industrial level, all these trends so that to obtain, always, an excellent product, where tradition and innovation blend naturally together.
6) A special moment you have lived in these last thirty years?
There have been so many, little big steps that have made Storci the Company that is today. As an example, the opening ceremony of the new headquarters in 2004. First among many, however, was the presentation of my father’s biography held in our premises. I saw reflected in the eyes of some of our collaborators close to tears.
A little tribute, if compared to the intensity of his life and experience, that I have strongly craved for, so that it remains as a permanent mark of a great man.
