The entrepreneurial adventure begins
I am Francesca Berti and I am the marketing manager of Caber – Bologna.
Just in Bologna in 1968 the company was born and was founded by my grandparents. My grandparents, who I remember with their eyes full of enthusiasm, of passion in telling me, now about 50 years ago, but this was precisely what guided this business start.
In the seventies, the desire to really create something on your own, therefore having given life to what is an enterprise in the world of food, in the world of perfumes, because sea salt was mixed with local herbs and then fresh herbs, the scent of fresh herbs, mixed with salt and jars, these little jars, but rich in flavor and aroma for all the dishes in our kitchen.
This was the intuition, it was the intuition that led to a link with our Emilia Romagna territory, Italy in general and therefore the fresh herbs of the territory combined with this sea salt, always Italian, strictly, they gave life and beginning to a story that has lasted for 50 years.
With pride we say that we are now in the third generation in the company, because my father obviously took over, joined his grandfather and grandmother and now I just beside my father, along with all that is our staff. So all that really serves the company, because it is true, we need intuitions, machinery to produce and raw materials, but people are important. We always say that we are a big family, therefore the family, our family that has expanded with our collaborators to whom we owe so much and also the success we have.
Because we must be happy with what the results achieved are, what we always continue to propose to improve our attention to keeping fresh herbs and the link with the land, the genuineness of the ingredients, but also progress. So bring everything that can always improve the product that goes to the consumer on the tables of many Italians and not only.
The money to start
There were no economic resources. I remember the grandparents who told me that there was so much will and few resources, little money and so what was it done? They started producing these jars, full of flavor, of perfume, day by day: so they produced and sold, they did not stock, precisely because they tried to have the gains of the day and then produce for the next day.
A negative and a positive event
I joined the company in 2005, I was only twenty years old and a few years later I had to learn that the entrepreneur must also face negative moments, in other words, of turbulence. So, those were the years, in short, of the beginning of an economic crisis that struck Italy, therefore, the contraction of the market and my father just said: “we must instead go ahead and react!”
So from the negative moment, from the negativity we decided instead to carry on an innovation, because often it can be one of the methodologies to defeat what to the entrepreneur can create, to the company creates negativity. We have innovated with a research convention with the Department of Food Science of the University of Bologna and we have created “Presal”, a protected iodized salt because we care about quality and genuine ingredients, also from the territory, but with an eye also to health.
Doing business in Italy
Speaking of the world of food, in Italy we are, as it were, really used to it and we have the tradition of being at the table, passing through conviviality, but also above all through knowing how to taste life and therefore the table, the genuine flavors, the ingredients, the ingredients and typical products also of the territory.
I believe that our company also has a deep connection with the territory, Italy and Emilia Romagna. In fact, we also own fields, rosemary fields, aromatic herbs and therefore a zero kilometer for our production, a truly business proposal linked to the territory, as well as over the years, in short, we wanted to bring new generations closer to the world of flavors and fragrances, especially of spices and aromatic herbs and therefore we have created a land adjacent to our establishment where it is possible, for schools and groups of enthusiasts, to see and touch what is not always so clear today. Therefore, the bond of nature to the products of the earth, then obviously processed from fresh with all the quality, food safety and technology that a company can have.
The key traits of the entrepreneur
In the common imagination, let’s say, we tend to think of the entrepreneur as perhaps a more masculine figure. In fact, my father, who is in the company, my father in fact, is the entrepreneur man, I will speak instead as a woman then entrepreneurship for women. What can it bring to the company, in my experience for a man, but also for a woman above all, entrepreneurship means determination, a “vision” to the future and what surrounds us. So, don’t shut yourself up in the corporate world, but rather always look outside. Nowadays, I must say, more and more we must look at what is the evolution of the consumer market, of the demands and then know how to respond to this in order to do good business.
Last but not least, what is needed is professionalism and knowledge. So it is always important, how to say, not to stop learning, to want to learn and also a bit of curiosity, always, which allows us to grow professionally.
The future for the new generations
Thinking of the new generations who want to do business, I think of all the advantages we can derive, they can be drawn from technology, from the modern world, but I can also say that we always remember our past, our traditions and generations that preceded us, because a lot can be learned from the past.
So, an eye to the enterprise of the future, to all that is change, to remain always on the move with, precisely, the times and what changes, never to stop, but sometimes to look also at the past, because it can really teach us so much in business and not only.
IP Crew
