The entrepreneurial adventure begins
I am Giannandrea Dubbini and I am the President of Diemme Industria Caffè Torrefatti SpA.
Company founded in 1927, here in Padua, by our grandfather Romeo and his wife Emma. Our grandfather, in his twenties, had begun to visit Venice and had seen the first “bars” with a small roaster to make coffee, and from there he immediately understood the power of this invigorating drink full of energy, that is coffee.
The old employees, some are still alive, very old, working with my grandfather, told me that my grandfather started going to Venice with a van, where the coffee arrived, the spices arrived, to get some bags of raw coffee and put a first roaster in his home. From there he began to develop the roasting activity.
Then, over the years there have been several generations and we are the third; in the fifties our father took over and then at the end, let’s say the early 90s, the Dubbini brothers.
The company specializes in the import of raw coffee from the various countries of origin, therefore from South America, Vietnam, the Indies, we mix it, toast it here in Padua and sell it in about forty countries around the world and above all in northern Italy and in our cities.
The money to start
My grandfather basically started from scratch, he was the son of a stationmaster, a very simple family, but in the 20s, in 1923 -’24 he opened a leather and fabrics shop in Piazza dei Signori, here in Padua, and he ran it for a couple of years. Therefore, the first money, to start the roasting business, came from there.
Then, like all success stories, most of the time they are all born from scratch, in a home’s garage, rather than inside the house, as in our specific case. Later, my father took over from his grandfather, so, let’s say, he already found a solid company in the ‘50s.
Therefore, there were no great funding needs at the beginning for us. Only much later, when we built this new headquarter, around 2005, a real multi-functional directional/commercial center, in which there is the main Diemme coffee house, in that case we needed the contribution of finance and I must say that the banks gave us great confidence. Probably, they understood the project, which was a serious project of growth and trusted the people, because I remain convinced that trust in people is an essential factor in both commercial and business relationships. And banks, however, still give confidence to people.
A negative and a positive event
A negative event and a positive event for me happened at the same time, the moment I fully entered the business world.
Here I have to tell a little story: my father died in 1988 and he left us when we were kids. We did not take care of the company, we did not know anything about running a business, because I was 17 years old. Of course I felt a strong call, inside me, from the company, and I have beautiful memories where my father enjoyed seeing me work with the boys, with the people in the warehouse to prepare coffee packages. Therefore, when I went to college, I started to go to the company offices instead of going to the library for studying. I placed myself in my father’s office and from there I started to live the company.
The negative event is when you realize that you want to enter the business world and the person who was referred to you as the person you should trust, who was your father’s right hand, the one you had always seen close to your father, in fact was the person who most obstructed and opposed my entry and that of my brothers in the company; and this was really an important passage in my life, because it marked me a lot in a negative sense.
At the same time, shortly after, when I managed to have the trust of my brothers, who appointed me as CEO and President of the company at only 24 years and I managed to win the trust of the collaborators, obviously with great humility, great sacrifices for my part, I also realized, and this is the really a positive aspect, the strength of the company, which had withstood years of bad management and also of my personal strength, which I say I was able to do this, certainly I put great effort, great sacrifice, but I did it. And I have to tell the truth, as today I carry the furniture of what was our father’s office, when I have the busts here behind me of my father and my grandfather, I feel protected and I feel stronger in business management.
The other event, there is another positive event, that I would like to share, is when we built this center, which is the Diemme center, as I said, which houses our main office. In that moment with my brothers we looked at each other, we understood that we had stopped playing the children of my father: Giulio Dubbini was a great personality, who linked the world of coffee with the world of vintage cars. He was a famous person in Italy, in Europe, he was a very strict man and therefore we continued to be the sons of Giulio Dubbini. Now, it is when we built our headquarters, we did a very important operation, because we realized that we were the Dubbini brothers, owners of Diemme coffee, and these are the two positive events of my entrepreneurial career.
Doing business in Italy
Doing business in Italy, first of all because we are Italians. I think that if you were born here, he has the obligation to invest here, if he can, obviously. For us it was relatively easy and it continues to be easy, because working in the food industry, obviously Italian food is famous all over the world, espresso was born in Italy, espresso technology was born in Italy, so it is natural for us. However, I feel a strong bond to our country and also to our city. Diemme has always been closely linked to the territory, we export to 30 countries, but we continue to be linked to our origins.
The other reason to continue investing in Italy, in my opinion, is because we must contribute to keep strong what is the real backbone of the country, which is represented by the small and medium-sized enterprises, which with their workers, their employees, are the real bones, let’s say, the true skeleton of this country. I really believe in what the small and big companies do, I am always fascinated when I hear the stories of great entrepreneurs who, starting from nothing, create jobs, create wealth, create well-being, are loved.
Then, the companies that open up abroad and create work outside of Italy are welcome, because they have to grow and compete in international markets. Of course delocalizing just to save money or earn more, maybe even leaving many people at home, that, in my opinion, is deplorable behavior.
The key traits of an entrepreneur
The two main characteristics that an entrepreneur must have, in my opinion, are the love for their work, which means loving unconditionally what you do, not looking at the clock, never being tired, you should always like what you do. This is the foundation of everything, because it is the only way to move forward.
And the other characteristic, in my opinion courage is fundamental: that is, there is always a good reason not to do things, there will always be someone who tells you, but also an inner voice that tells you, but why hasn’t someone else thought of this, but why hasn’t someone else already done this. Therefore, the reasons not to do there will always be: so the entrepreneur is the one who is able to go beyond the doubt, of course after having analyzed things in depth and often launches into the void and takes risks.
These are the two main characteristics. Then, in my case, I can say that I have also been very humble. This was because I had an entrepreneurial path where I didn’t have anyone who taught me, I wanted to learn, in fact, I even lost a lot of time, but humility allowed me to be accepted and to get help from those close to me.
The future for the new generations
What I feel like telling young people, all of them, is to have the desire to train, to learn, to learn as much as possible. Ourselves, as a company, will soon launch a great Academy, where we will train clients at all levels, but the concept is that you must train, you must learn as much as possible. I say this, of course, to the guys who have the opportunity to do it, instead to those who are less fortunate, who have to start working right away, as kids or right after school and who don’t have that opportunity, I say: regardless of the work you do, do it with commitment, do it with dedication, study the processes, look, observe and maybe you have the desire and the good luck to go to your employer and propose an improvement of your workflow, even if it is the most humble of jobs. Or maybe from there you can form some ideas for a new business, to do with someone who can maybe help you out.
In short, do things well, don’t waste time. One thing that I always tell everyone is to work, we all have to work because for n reasons everyone has to work. So I say do it well, take advantage of it, because time passes faster and you have the opportunity to gain insight in what you do and you will surely be more successful, you will succeed in life.
IP Crew
