Patrizio Dei Tos ITLAS Labor Legno

atrizio Dei Tos, CEO of ITLAS Labor Legno, starting from an unexpected layoff, create his own company that will become leader in the wood sector. Step by step you can build a big project always paying attention to the market.

Patrizio Dei Tos – itlas.com

The entrepreneurial adventure begins

I’m Patrizio dei Tos, I’m the CEO of the ITLAS – Laborlegno group.
This company was founded in 1985 related to the experience I had gained in the previous years, when worked as a salesman in my father’s company. So, I used to go around selling, I I was sort of an agent. When I got to, let’s say, a good result I was no longer essential to the company of my dad’s partners and they decided to fire me.
At that point I took advantage of the situation and I became self employed. That’s when Laborlegno was born, 1985, so very slowly, slowly, I started alone with an employee and started buying a woodworking machine. I knew woodworking, so I started to work, to follow the processing of wood, the first processing, then I went to buy the logs in France, I sawed them, it was a bit of an adventure, a little step by step, a little long but I did a lot, I was aware of the experience I had gained before so I knew customers, I knew the products and, therefore, I knew I had a business plan to make a product that was sellable. I already knew that I could earn something doing these transformations. Then, after having covered, let’s say, the whole initial phase of woodworking, there have been several phases in which, before, the trend was European wood, then durmast, beech, walnut, then there was the one of exotic woods, from 1990 to 2003-2004, the most used wood was exotic wood.
This led me to go to Africa, I created a big company in Africa, for the supply of the raw material and with this, let’s say, with this attention towards supply, they have even managed to produce the floors, from the raw material, from the forest to the finished product. This has created and has made these companies become leaders in the production of floors and, above all, they are very vertical companies, because they start from the forest and reach the finished product.
Today, after the experience in Africa we have brought the company to Italy, so we have tried to tie these companies, the ITLAS LaborLegno companies, to the national territory, using italian wood, in this case we are talking about the beech of the Cansiglio, which we call “axes of the Cansiglio”. This wood has a very important feature because it grows at 1,200 meters above sea level, so we have given new life to this forest, making the floors with this wood. This wood, among other things, is very valuable, because back in the era of the Serenissima they used it to make the galleys, so it was a wood of great value.
Then, we have also developed, with all our collaborators, also productions, patented products, very technological products and, therefore, the company, since 1985, has had a very strong growth also at a technological level. The company is very industrialized, very automated. We also faced various crises, the sinusoidal trend of the market, but still creating products that “gave answers” and created connections, both for the customer and for us who worked on the product.

The money to start

As for the funds or, vulgarly, the money, it is always the most delicate part, because you need to have many relationships with the credit institutions. The lenders, as you know, when you need money, they don’t give it, when you do not need money, they give it. So I have sometimes needed my family. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and I was lucky enough to get some help from the family and also from the credit institutions.
But, regardless of the situation, you must always trust your own strength. However, you must have a solid business plan, you must be able to pay debts, to be able to develop the company in such a way that debt is repaid. You can’t think that debt is free, this is important. However, I was lucky enough to have guarantees from the family as well.
Fortunately, today things are going well, so we don’t need the help of the institutions. However, it is a very delicate moment for these fundings.

A negative and a positive event

Speaking of a negative event, which is the worst part today and which I now recall less apprehensively, is a problem of the Italian bureaucracy. I have always wanted to build, to do quickly, because when the market asks, you have to give immediate answers. The Italian bureaucracy, already back in the early years of 2000, when I wanted to grow very fast, couldn’t keep up with me. So, I had a bureaucratic issue within the Municipality, receiving even a criminal complaint, just for having built a yard to store wood. I wanted to grow, I wanted to give more people jobs, I wanted to make more products, and making a yard on my land, of course, not on someone else’s, it was agricultural land next to the company, I got a criminal complaint, and then started a whole process to restore the area. Despite our good intentions, the only desire to create jobs, we were reported. This was a negative event.
Fortunately, the number of positive events outweighs the negative ones, there have been many positive events. One that struck me, in particular, was when a 14-year-old boy came here with his father looking for a job in 1987 -1988, he had just reached the working age. l took him with me, it was the beginning of the activity for me too. I started with this guy and today he is the company administrator, so it was a positive thing, a good story and he is very proud of it. He says he grew up, matured, practically made his whole history inside the company. The name of this guy is Vendramin Mirco, he became the company administrator, congratulations.

Doing business in Italy

Why doing business in Italy, this is a very interesting question.
I have worked abroad as well, because I have been to Africa, I founded a very important company in Africa in 1992 and I was there until 2004. Three years ago I went to Serbia, to work on the supply of raw materials because, unfortunately, Italy does not have them, and I set up a company in Serbia too.
I can say that when you are abroad, you are never at home, you always play “an away game”. So doing the entrepreneur in Italy, all in all, has some advantages because you play at home. I think foreigners in Italy struggle much more than us doing business.
Doing business in Italy, despite the bureaucracy, despite all the problems, in the end the Italians manage to get out of it. However, we succeed if we have a “business plan”, if we have a production, if we have clear objectives. I would not recommend going abroad now, because you always play away from home so, despite my experience, I would still choose to do business in Italy.

The key traits of an entrepreneur

Let’s say that to be an entrepreneur, you must also be a bit of a psychologist, because the entrepreneur isn’t the entrepreneur of himself, but the entrepreneur of many people. He must, thereby, have a group of people he works with. A good entrepreneur is someone who manages to pull out the best from all the people around him.
Everyone, including myself, has strengths and weaknesses. If you find, highlight and play to the strengths you create a winning team, if you play to the weaknesses you create losing teams.
So, clearly, the successful entrepreneur, in my opinion is the stubborn, the one who believes, the one that never stops and the one that knows how to make people work and use their strengths.

The future for the new generations

The only thing I would like to tell young people is to not get too caught up in the virtual world, to stay on the practical, to focus on the real economy, not on the virtual financial economy, because it is extremely dangerous. It can be good, for God’s sake, and there are people who have made a lots of money, but those who are real entrepreneurs, who will always remain, are those who are down to earth and stay in the real economy.
So what I recommend to young people is to be stubborn, to believe in what they do, to have ideas, to always look for new ideas, but to always be sensible. Dream, but not too much.

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