On the cover: with buyers in London in 1996: Sergio Pelassa, Alberto Bianchi, Monica Camagni, Anna Mangiola and Claudia Marchetti.
The buyers existed, of course, long before I came to the company. They were essentially dedicated to buying food, of which they were great connoisseurs, with a state-of-the-art reordering and warehouse management system but rudimentary commercial tools (e.g. product gross margin).
I change the merchandising, organisational and management approach. First of all the organisation, with the inclusion of non-food is expanded. We are forced to hire a lot of people. Then ‘There are also a lot of changes in the general organisation: the buyers [the company representatives at all stages of commercial purchasing as well as those responsible for the procurement necessary for production] have to justify their proposals by carefully assessing the target market, possible turnovers, the price positioning of Esselunga-branded products, profit margins and so on. Everything is summarised in a summary sheet, which I personally put together and which is used to evaluate the data processed by the buyers. Everything is then passed on to the communication office, long managed by [my sister] Violetta, who works with the advertising agency to study the packaging and prepare the material for product launches. (…)”. (pp. 165-168). “The ‘we don’t take anyone from outside’ rule that had been in force up to that point was cancelled and the managers were joined by one or more young people who could, in time, take their place. Some of these decisions shake up old equilibriums: the position of ‘assistant buyer’ is inserted ex novo into purchasing, along the lines of what Dominick’s has seen done, even though some buyers would like to continue to mind their own business, without having a young person to train and manage’. (p. 198).
The buyers, both old and young, were certainly responsible for the quality of the products and the great economic results achieved over time: profitability in the early 2000s is 2.5 times that of the 1990s.
