Enrico Grassi – Founder and President of Italy-headquartered multinational E80 Group – has received the prestigious ‘Visionary Leader’ accolade from judges at the recently concluded Gulfood Manufacturing 2022, held in the UAE. 

The E80 Group boss received recognition at the prestigious F&B industry awards as a pioneer of Industry 4.0 and a promoter of the values of innovation and sustainability.

More than a thousand food & beverage industry leaders met at the Dubai World Trade Centre for the event, which is dedicated to innovation, digital transformation and sector megatrends. There were five areas of focus: ingredients, processing, packaging, supply chain solutions, and automation.

With 14 branches around the world, Italian multinational E80 Group participated with its very own stand in the ‘Packaging’ pavilion, presenting tailored intralogistics solutions for factories and distribution centres, alongside automatic laser guided vehicles (AGVs/LGVs) – the company's core business.

Industrial innovator and sustainability champion

At Gulfood Manufacturing Industry Excellence Awards 2022, a total of 10 prizes were awarded to innovators of the industry, in recognition of the products and technologies that have made exceptional contributions to the F&B sector. 

Mr Grassi was awarded the ‘Visionary Leader’ on account of his activities as pioneer of Industry 4.0. Indeed, the E80 boss promotes continuous innovation and sustainability and inspires a company capable of generating value both within and beyond the Group. A veteran entrepreneur, Mr Grassi has been active in the development of intralogistics since 1980 – in the mechatronics valley of Emilia – and was a prominent forerunner of an interconnected and safe Smart Factory as far back as 1992.

Since then, the innovative drive of E80 Group – formed out of a merger between Elettric80 and BEMA – has culminated in the registration of 30 patented systems over four decades in business.

Today, over half of the turnover of E80 Group (€323 million, 2021) comes from the Food & Beverage industry, with brands including Barilla, National Food Products Company, Constellation Brands, Perrier, Evian, Carozzi, Hellenic Dairies, Acqua Sant’Anna and many more, featuring amongst the Group’s prestigious roll-call of customers.

Optimised operations

The innovation of E80 Group combines its development goals and its customer’s sustainability goals. For example, E80 Group's integrated systems applied to Barilla smart factory support the energy consumption reduction strategy pursed by the Parma-based company, consistent with its commitment to spearheading the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Thanks to improved product management at the distribution centre, Barilla has eliminated around 3,000 truck journeys a year that were previously made to external warehouses. This strategy has reduced carbon dioxide emissions, cut lighting costs by 40 per cent, and heating costs by 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, the application of E80 Group solutions in intralogistics flows, automated warehouses and innovative picking systems has enabled Carozzi in Chile to increase its delivery capacity by 35 per cent compared to previous systems, by optimising existing warehousing space with 98-per-cent saturation.

"Gulfood Manufacturing is one of the most significant global shows of the F&B industry, and we've been participating for years,” noted Mr Grassi. “We are able to compare ourselves to global leaders, thanks to a truly remarkable team work, which would have never been possible without the expertise and strong skills of over 1,100 employees,” he advised. 

“This heritage has enabled us to install and develop over 350 smart factories, 2,500 robotised systems, 6,500 AGVs/LGVs and, from 2016 alone, over 40 integrated high-density warehouses – all managed by the SM.I.LE80 software platform. With these numbers, we are present on five continents. Our participation at Gulfood Manufacturing 2022 was yet another opportunity to confirm the global vision of our Group.”