In previous episodes, we talked about sustainable mobility with Pavè , small shops and neighborhoods rebirth with Food Typography, and of positive impact with Natural wine technology.
In this episode we will focus on sharing. We have always been taught that unity is strength. Well, this period has given us proof: alone we would not have been able to cope with such a situation that suddenly rained down on us. Trivially, meeting everyone on the balconies singing together gave us the strength to go on.
Sharing allows us to be more optimistic. Sharing allows us to see the world in a different perspective. Sharing allows us to create and develop ideas that we would never have come up with on our own.
Certainly, those who managed to network and create something together in this period, with a sharing of means and experiences, came out strengthened.
We talked about all this with Alessandro from Sapori Solari. He told us about their project to share skills and resources with their distributor L’Orto di Jack, and their goal of making salami sexy.
Hi Alessandro, what was your reaction when there was the first sign of a possible closure of the activities here in Milan?
There was a bit of fear, it cannot be denied. We have been bombarded with different news: decrees, controls, cases on the rise. We took the first week of the lockdown to reflect and understand what steps to take in the near future. From this reflection it emerged that we had to take this moment of closure as an opportunity.
Unlike others, you have decided not to be alone, and to collaborate with another reality to cope with this uncertain period.
Here the credit for the initiative goes to our partner, our fruit and vegetable distributor: Jack's Garden. Their business, unable to deliver to restaurants during the lockdown period, would have suffered a shutdown. Instead, they have well thought of making direct deliveries to citizens of fresh and quality fruit and vegetables at the prices they usually do to restaurateurs.
We wanted to do the same thing with the cured meats we offer in our restaurant. So we got together, and we were able to take advantage of their logistics and transport network. We have pooled resources. They made this network available, and we our IT team to develop the platform through which to sell our products.
Was the idea born as a result of this stalemate, or was it already latent in your head?
Creating the B2C platform is a need born for the situation that was underway. But our collaboration with the guys from Jack's Garden had already been underway for a while. They wanted to expand the offer by combining our cured meats with their products, and offer this bundle to restaurants. With this lockdown we tested the service with the end customer, which continues to this day.
This idea that you have put into practice, in your opinion, has allowed you to stay afloat?
It definitely allowed us to parry the unexpected blow. First of all, in terms of brand visibility, it was an excellent move because even if people were closed at home, we continued to be with them, offering them this combo.
By combining your efforts, you have also reached a clientele that was not yours.
Yes, right. And thanks to this test, we hope they will visit us at the club too. Of course, we also tried to tell them about the product experience through social communication. Of course, it is a little different than the one in the club, but it gives you a first taste of the whole journey you would experience with us.
These forms of aggregation to share skills and resources is a form of business that we believe will have significant developments in the future.
I very much agree. We have always believed in a synergy between people, to create a network in which each of us can do his part. And this is what happened with Jack's Garden.
What difficulties did you find in expanding this network? How many are you currently carrying out the idea?
In addition to Jack's Garden, with us there is also Princi, who, like us, gets supplies from them. We are looking for other partners who share our same goals, but for the moment there are only three of us.
Another idea that you had in terms of sustainability, and that struck us a lot, was the fact that you were among the first to make small producers and the "obsessive" search for good products young and fresh.
It is a philosophy that we have carried with us since the beginning. We often joke that we wanted to make the salami, a traditional product, something sexy, even in telling it. We have always looked for local cured meats and we wanted to make them a product suitable for a dynamic and cosmopolitan city like Milan.
We have relied on small local producers, who raise native animals of our area. More than the organic product, which is important, we wanted to emphasize the aspect of the territoriality and genuineness of the product, detaching ourselves from the industrial food chain.
Another thing that this lockdown brought us was the use of the QR-Code menus. Not being able to hand out paper menus to customers, for obvious reasons of hygiene, we have relied on the use of online menus. This has allowed us to halve paper consumption and be more sustainable from this point of view as well.