erre d’Oltrepò is preparing for the 2024 harvest with a call to action from members and the territory. In 11 months the company has undertaken a fundamental transformation to go from a social winery to an industrial wine hub. This was possible thanks to the group’s first five-year industrial plan, focused on numbers rather than feelings. Today, Cantina di Broni, Cantina di Casteggio and La Versa are moving towards becoming a restructured holding, with the aim of fully valorising the territory through method, transparency and skills. Credit goes to the new board of directors led by CEO Umberto Callegari, who brought the “know-how” of the large multinationals in which he gained his professional experience to the hills of the Oltrepò. The company has gone from an almost “default” situation, with numerous unresolved problems and reputation and brand issues never addressed, to a future-oriented company that has rewritten its own destiny. Furthermore, thanks to the key role in the renewal of the Oltrepò Pavese Wine Protection Consortium, now led by the president and winemaker Francesca Seralvo, a new path has been traced based on competence, credibility, supply chain and virtuous leadership.”Until less than a year ago, Terre of Oltrepò was oppressed by unresolved issues: the ban on unloading due to negligence dating back to 2015. No certification to compete in Italy and in the world, a banking credibility in doubt also due to the constant access to credit to pay members in the recent past against the lack of planning and suitable positioning on the various channels. Industrial accounting was also missing. In 11 months Callegari and the Board of Directors drew up a new roadmap: two important certifications were obtained with maximum scores, the group returned as a protagonist. at important organized distribution brands and commercially there has been a rebirth with the Horeca turnover tripling (relating to hotel, restaurant, catering and wine bar sales). On the export front, important supply chain contracts have been launched towards Japan, the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal without selling below cost or implementing “empty cellar” strategies. Terre d’Oltrepò, in a year in which the cost of many raw materials tripled, has reclaimed the value chain. Callegari has also restructured costs, laying the foundations for industrial efficiency. Trust has been re-created around the company. New managerial skills have also arrived with an advisory board (audit system) of international standing with the recent entry of Giovanni Andrea Toselli, Gianfranco Casati and Paolo Colombo. Despite a contracting market at a national and foreign level in 2023, especially on the red wines and Bonarda front, Callegari who has not yet faced a single harvest at the helm of the company (the first will be that of 2024) through meticulous work has also managed to ensure an initial substantial increase in the valuations of grapes, in particular Riesling, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The first contracts were also signed for the “sur lat” sale of sparkling wine bases and 700 thousand bottles of La Versa Classic Method were released, thus also increasing the warehouse value. On the winery’s debt front, a review was achieved which gave the group a stable and renegotiated situation with partners with more substantial terms. Furthermore, the first blockchain certification and the first sustainability report were produced. On the sustainability front, investments have been made in purification and filtration which will allow 95% of the water to be reused at the Broni and Casteggio sites. At a commercial level, a contract was signed with the international Pizza Express chain and the brand positioned itself in the MotoGP universe solely on the lever of relationships and through the value of the wine.
CEO Umberto Callegari starts from a premise: “The company situation we inherited was seriously compromised both at an industrial and financial level, further aggravated by an insufficient contribution. However, we have managed to regain credibility and improve key parameters of business and industrial management. We strengthened liquidity and improved the debt situation, obtaining new financing at more favorable interest rates and with a longer time horizon.” Callegari explains: “Despite the global crisis of red wines, which represent over 40% of production in the Oltrepò, we have maintained good ratings for the grapes without resorting to bank credit. We have started an important internationalization process, signing significant contracts in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Germany and the Nordic countries, where we were not present before. Furthermore, we have improved performance in the HoReCa and GDO channels. We are aware – continues the CEO of Terre d’Oltrepò – that the first 18 months will be crucial for this relaunch process. Our industrial plan will cover a
period of 5 years and will require constant commitment from everyone.
We are at the beginning of a journey that will require dedication and teamwork to bring prosperity back to an area with great potential, which has so far been too penalized by disastrous past management”. Callegari concludes: “Opinions don’t matter, data and the market matter. Our goal is to help Oltrepò evolve to become the virtuous system it always should have been. With commitment and dedication, we are ready to take on this challenge and guarantee a prosperous future for our company and the territory.”
A path that territorial politics also follows with participation. Giovanni Palli, president of the provincial administration of Pavia, observes: “The relaunch of the Oltrepò Pavese in its entirety has been a priority political mission for us since I took office. The key points are infrastructure, tourism, wine, agri-food, spa and everything that gives identity to our hills, including the hospitality and catering sectors which are ambassadors of the territory. We must not be the Tuscany that costs less than Tuscany. We must be able to modernize ourselves, make ourselves attractive, animate the territory and generate sustainable development to compete on equal terms. These are not paths that can be completed with a magic wand, vision, strategy and time are needed, especially after the opportunities that were not fully exploited in the past when everything was simpler. In my role as mayor of Varzi, President of the Mountain Community and President of the Provincial Administration, I have measured how fundamental it is, in respect of the specific roles and respective autonomies, that institutions and the business system contribute to this objective on parallel tracks. We need to create a community on the one hand and a business network on the other, converging to measure concrete results in discontinuity with the past. The territory needs leadership and method. The industrial plan of Terre d’Oltrepò expresses contents that go precisely in this direction and it is up to the sector to implement them in the interest of many small municipalities that link their history to wine. There is a future to be written.”