Vetronaviglio, founded 30 years ago by Mrs Cristina Solito de Solis, is getting a makeover. The packaging company has decided to update its market image with a new, fresher and more striking look that echoes its dynamic and cutting-edge business DNA beautifully. All without losing touch with its roots, philosophy and values, two distinguishing traits that have been a constant throughout its history, namely quality and service. The proving ground will be OnBeauty in Bologna and Luxe Pack in Montecarlo, where Vetronaviglio will be offering visitors an overview of its services and know-how.
The focus will be on Quality, to which the business has always devoted undivided attention, but there will be room to showcase new additions to the range and new projects, too, as we’re told by Federico Rosi, Vetronaviglio Quality Manager and VP Sales Manager. A man who, having worked for several years in the high-end perfume decoration business and in the creation of cosmetic products, accepted a new challenge in 2021 when he joined the Vetronaviglio team.
Can you give us a brief description of Vetronaviglio?
Vetronaviglio is an Italian company based in Bareggio, on the outskirts of Milan, that has been in the cosmetic packaging business since 1991. Appointed with a number of modern, cutting-edge production, moulding (blow, injection…) and decoration (hot stamping, UV screen printing, pad printing) lines, we can develop custom or standard full-service projects. In addition to the production side of things, our facility is also home to R&D, Graphic & Design, Purchasing, Sales, and Quality Control, which has been boosted considerably in recent years with hefty investments and the addition of new resources, including myself as Quality Manager.
Our core business revolves around the skincare world, (fluid) makeup, fragrances and cleansing, and our offering ranges from small runs through to catering to large customers and filling sizeable orders. By way of example, our blow-moulding department – which comprises 8 machines – works across 3 shifts and can produce 2 million parts a month.
What are the strengths and distinctive traits of your offering?
Quality, by which I mean control over the whole supply chain and whole process; the full-service offering, which encompasses primary packaging and – for a while now – secondary packaging, too, which significantly reduces turnaround and offers the customer greater assurance in terms of quality and manufacturing flexibility.
The number of machines we have for each technology means we can always deliver a solution with an accompanying back-up solution, and carrying out many of the processes in-house, such as decoration, allows us to offer a high degree of customization, quality and accuracy, while meeting customer requirements and keeping to deadlines.
In recent years, Vetronaviglio has embarked on an evolution that has led it to become more structured and to beef up certain strategic areas, like quality. What are the latest developments in this area? What are the key aspects of your Quality Control Process?
Vetronaviglio has always devoted a lot of attention to the quality of its products, hence the decision to invest heavily in process and quality control in recent years. Conventional wisdom has it that only those who monitor the whole process – from the raw material R&D stage through to actual manufacturing of the packaging – can be sure of fully meeting the customer’s requirements and ensuring the end result matches the design brief.
With this in mind, the company has invested in two different areas of Quality: Quality Assurance and Quality Control.
The purpose of investing resources in Quality Assurance is to have full control over business processes and to clearly define communication both within and outside the company. It is aimed at achieving greater process efficiency and improving the quality of the service and product offered to our customers.
One “new development” is that we have a person specifically tasked with staying on top of regulatory technical requirements who has become a member of the relevant trade associations so as to keep up to date: this means we can provide customers (across the globe) with support when it comes to regulatory matters and always be in a position to produce all the documentation required to draw up the PIF and/or for other purposes within the relevant timeframe (where possible, before the request is even submitted).
And that’s not all…
Right! Staying on the subject of QA, quality is now an entrenched part of the design process as it’s essential to approach each new project with the implementation of a suitable risk analysis. In Vetronaviglio’s case, this is tackled and developed taking into account the product’s WHOLE life (from the process of filling/labelling/putting it in its secondary packaging/storing it at our customer’s premises, through to its use by the end consumer). My previous work experience and the know-how gleaned from the professionals I’ve had the good fortune to work with have certainly come in handy in this regard.
Our Quality Control Process is about ensuring that every product is monitored at every stage of the manufacturing process with control plans fine-tuned to suit the type of material, the upstream process and its destination.
What certifications have you achieved? Are you working on others?
To date, we have ISO 9001:2015 and WCA (Workplace Conditions Assessment).
Our next goals are ISO 22716:2007 – the standard that describes Good Manufacturing Practices in the cosmetics industry – and ISO 14001:2015, underlining our commitment to environmental sustainability.
More specifically, for ISO 22716:2007, we’re aiming to achieve certification in the first quarter of 2022. Significant measures are being taken in terms of structure and organization with the ultimate aim of having a level of hygiene and cleanliness on a par with a cosmetics company.
Vetronaviglio is a commendable example of a women-run family business, one headed by two women, mother and daughter. In your experience, what are the advantages of this type of governance?
Given that it’s increasingly rare even to find businesses in our industry that are still run by their owners, Vetronaviglio really is something of a unique case in the cosmetic world: a business that’s not only family run, but run solely by female members of the family, with Mrs Cristina Solito de Solis at the company’s helm and Bettina Solito de Solis working as Operations Manager. The family-run model not only serves as tangible testimony to a keen passion for this job – something that has been passed down from mother to daughter – it offers a number of advantages, too: full control over all business processes, including all things finance, and a high level of responsiveness to any type of decision, action or investment. And let’s not forget that our CEO, Cristina Solito de Solis, has an impressive forty years of experience in packaging, especially in the world of glass.
You’re due to be at OnBeauty and Luxe Pack in September: which of your products or collections will be headlining?
Following an almost two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, we’re finally in for an event-packed autumn, and we’re getting everything ready so that Vetronaviglio’s “new” image can make its debut at these events: an image that’s still true to the values and philosophy that have been our consistent hallmarks, but that’s also been brought in line with the times and with a rapidly evolving market. There will be room to showcase new products, too, including new additions to the range and new processes, but the real focus will be on us, on the services and products we can offer and on our proven expertise in developing, making and decorating glass and plastic cosmetic packaging.