Surgital closes 2022 above forecasts (+39%)

Surgital, an Italian company producing frozen fresh pasta, frozen ready meals and frozen sauces in nugget form, closed 2022 with a Group production value of 109.

00.000 euros (54% in Italy and 46% abroad), an increase of 39% compared with the previous financial year. Gross operating profit amounted to 17.800.000 euros, while net profit for the year was 8 million euros.

The Surgital Group comprises Surgital, the parent company, Surgital France, Surgital America and Ca’ Pelletti Retail. Horeca and foodservice account for 70%, while the remaining 30% relates to management operations in the GDO, door-to-door and industrial private-label channels. “The results were higher than the forecast budget,” says Massimiliano Bacchini, member of the Cda and commercial director of Surgital. “Growth has taken place in a balanced manner both in Italy and in export markets, confirming the positive outlook over the medium to long term, that is, 3-5 years. In response to this trend, we are continuing our development policies both at production level, where we are still investing in facilities, and in energy efficiency; at the same time, we are increasing our presence in Surgital’s main reference markets, primarily foodservice – where we generate 75% of our turnover and where we will continue to expand product distribution.”

Thanks to the growth trend, Surgital confirms its estimate for the result at the end of the plan (31 December 2025) of approximately 140 million euros, representing +40% compared with the budget earmarked for the previous industrial plan for the period 2020-2022. Various operations to improve the company’s structure and management are therefore continuing. Today, the production area covers 35 thousand sq m, within a total area of 200 thousand sq m. During the previous three-year period, five new production lines were installed – in addition to the 28 already present at the company – enabling the development of all the product categories handled, namely frozen fresh filled pasta, frozen fresh long and short pasta, and frozen ready meals and sauces.

Investments in production plants and facilities are planned at approximately 20 million over the three-year period 2023-2025 and are intended to continue expanding the production capacity of the Lavezzola (Ra) plant through the addition of two new production lines for ready meals and ready-made sauces, as well as further improvements to the packaging processes on the existing lines.

Further investment areas concern the energy component of the production site; the modernisation of the existing trigeneration plant is already under way, with various measures planned to improve efficiency and reduce overall consumption; in addition, a new photovoltaic system will be installed in an area adjacent to the plant, enabling a maximum electricity generation capacity of 2,5 MW/hour. The objective is to make the Lavezzola plant energy self-sufficient, with a total capacity of more than 8/MW hour of self-generation.

These intervention strategies confirm that innovation and sustainability have for years been fundamental and distinctive assets of Surgital: from the focus on the preservation process, which involves no additives but only the application of cold technology, to energy independence, thanks to photovoltaic systems and cogeneration plants, through which a saving of 370 tonnes of Co2 is guaranteed every month.

Finally, the plan includes internal reorganisation programmes in the sales and marketing area, also through the implementation of a new CRM project, operational during 2023, as well as an increase in staff in Italy, France and North America. These are complemented by increasingly advanced digital transformation and automation initiatives, aimed at ensuring the high quality of the products, a distinctive characteristic recognised by the international market.

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.