Global Fastener News

In a March 31,2020 letter to employees, Agrati CEO Paolo Pozzi wrote that Agrati formed a task force in January to guide the Italy-based company through the COVID-19 crisis.

Pasquale Gallace

Pozzi noted that 44-year-old Pasquale Gallace of Agrati logistics in Italy died March 27, 2020, of COVID-19.  His father had died a few days earlier.

At that point, Italy had 12,428 deaths and 105,792 infections, Pozzi wrote.

Pozzi reported four other colleagues in Italy and one in France had tested positive.

“We are experiencing a critical time that is far different from other crises in the past,” Pozzi wrote.  “The true difference is that we are facing a social emergency and not only a financial or business crisis, that deeply impact our personal life and our daily.  With Italy shutdown due to the coronavirus “during these weeks of forced break,” families are facing more than news and statistics. Pozzi singled out his own “pain and sadness in watching the huge number of elderly people die because of the coronavirus: I believe all of them had a wrongful end.”

Pozzi urged Agrati employees experiencing symptoms “not to wait too long before connecting with the dedicated sanitary institutions.”

Thanks to technology, the Agrati management team is working remotely “to ensure a quick recovery and return to normal operations.”

Upon the outbreak in January in China, Agrati created a task force to determine priorities and find solutions for emerging problems.  Agrati formed local COVID-19 crisis teams in Italy, France, the U.S. and China.

Pozzi said the task force meets daily with “a defined agenda and keeps minutes of all its meetings.”  The team seeks to “ensure the coordination of several activities that are essential in this period,” such as cash-in and payments management, administrative and governance deadlines.  “These activities are necessary to negotiate with banks and financial institutions the cash needs of the coming months,” Pozzi explained.

Agrati also is “working on new projects and acquiring new orders as well as managing the relationship with customers and suppliers, that will be fundamentals when the market will restart,” Pozzi wrote.

Agrati can’t confirm a restart originally announced for April 6, but it will be “only when the safety conditions to protect the employees will be ensured and shared with labour unions.”

The situation means changes, Pozzi acknowledged.  “However, as a company, we shall be able to adapt to these new conditions.”  Winners are not necessarily the strongest, “but the one who better and faster adapt himself to the changes.”

Pozzi closed by commending health care workers: “Since the beginning of the emergency they dedicated their own life to the others, putting at high risks their health and their families.”  Charitable donations will “never be comparable to their efforts,” Pozzi observed.

Editor’s Note:  Founded in 1939 as a mechanical engineering company in Italy, Agrati first produced wood screws.  In 2020, Agrati also has facilities in France, Germany, China, U.S. Japan and Taiwan and is headquartered in Veduggio, Italy.  Agrati buys 160,00 tons of steel a year to produce eight billion fasteners, with 60% of production going to automotive OEMs.  Web: Agrati.com