Fresh Point Magazine - B2B24 - Il Sole 24 Ore

to mention the fact that laboratories accredited by
Sinal are equipped with a system to control and
ensure the quality of Dico products through additional
chemical and microbiological testing. Last, but
not least, is pricing: accurate sorting by suppliers
and Dico’s own purchasing policy make sure that the
prices of all the company’s items are truly competitive
without sacrificing quality.
We talked about all this and more with Cristiano
Zingarlini, head of produce purchasing at Dico
S.p.A.
Can you tell us how Dico actually manages its
fresh produce supplies?
Dico undertook a thorough overhaul of its fruit and
vegetable business in 2011, a radical move that led to
the setting up of four new nation-wide supply hubs in
six weeks in addition to the main one in Tuscany.
When it comes to produce, we currently work from
five regional hubs located in Veneto, Piedmont,
Campania, Tuscany and the Marches. This is a strategic
set-up with a national reach that’s designed to
promote logistical synergies aimed at ensuring fresh
supplies for sale on a daily basis in our fruit and vegetable
departments.
Can you say something about logistics, an area
that’s a key factor in the fresh produce industry?
How are you organised here?
Our logistics operations are at the full-time service
of our outlets. The idea is to make sure sic deliveries
a week of fresh food reach our supermarkets. To
make a long story short, the produce we buy goes
from field harvest to our shelves in no more than 10-
16 hours. It’s our way of making sure our customers
reap the full advantage of the short supply-chain
concept in terms of real freshness and quality. The
effort that goes into this approach is the fruit of
proper planning and hands-on, efficient execution
from one step to the next that our company is
famous for.
What kind of volumes do you handle?
Our hub network handled a combined yearly produce
volume in 2011 that was just shy of nine million
crates, all the crates and boxes being recyclable
from CPR, a very concrete way of showing how
strongly we’re committed to environmental protection.
What do you think are the key strategic factors
that make up your market edge?
The basic strategy we follow in the business model of
our fruit and vegetable operations is built on principles
designed to meet consumer expectations to the
full. Our competitive edge comes from the fact that
grazie alla selezione dei fornitori e alle politiche di acquisto,
i prezzi Dico sono assai competitivi su tutti i prodotti,
senza per questo escludere la qualità.
Ne parliamo con Cristiano Zingarlini, responsabile
acquisti ortofrutta Dico spa.
Ci spiega in che modo Dico gestisce i processi del
settore del fresco?
L’ortofrutta Dico nel 2011 è stata protagonista di un
rinnovamento radicale che ha visto l’attivazione di
quattro piattaforme in sei settimane sul territorio nazionale,
in aggiunta alla capostipite in Toscana. Nello specifico,
per la distribuzione di ortofrutta, siamo organizzati
su cinque piattaforme distribuite in Veneto,
Piemonte, Campania, Toscana e Marche. Senza dubbio,
questa disposizione strategica delle piattaforme
sul territorio nazionale favorisce sinergie logistiche
garantendo quotidianamente la freschezza dei prodotti
serviti nei vari reparti.
Ci parli della logistica, uno dei pilastri dell’industria del
fresco. Com’è strutturata operativamente?
La nostra logistica opera incessantemente al servizio del
punto vendita, garantendo sei consegne la settimana di
prodotti freschi. In sintesi possiamo dire che, dalla raccolta
in produzione alla sistemazione sui banchi di vendita,
il prodotto non supera mai le 10-16 ore per cui il
cliente gode appieno del vero concetto di filiera corta
Fresh Point Magazine n.3 – march/marzo 2012
51
isr/Dico (Italy)
gdo/Dico (Italia)