Italian success stories: Francesco Maria Zollo between entrepreneurship and charity

Facility and services are its main activity; the entrepreneur, for him, has always been the working figure who represented him par excellence. He is enterprising and perfectionist in nature with a keen sense for business. We are talking about Francesco Maria Zollo, an entrepreneur with a passion for engines.

“Today times have changed, probably also the ways in which a parent teaches a child some values” – says Zollo – “you have to believe in what you really want, commit yourself and make great sacrifices to obtain results. I carry with me my father’s great teachings, such as always remaining humble, remembering where you come from and what you really are, dreaming and trying to do big things.”

At the time, Francesco’s father, director of a well-known company that produced adhesive paper, taught him a lot, making him experience firsthand what it meant to work in shifts on the machines that laminated paper, to learn every step of the production process and to have a total understanding of the company in its complexity.

He carried this precious teaching with him in all the subsequent activities and companies that he acquired and started, always keeping himself informed on production details and the supply chain, because only by knowing the processes in detail could he be the best in what he was truly passionate about .

“After my military service and after finishing my studies I left for Romania, where I acquired a small company that worked with wood. One of our main customers was a large Italian company from Carpi (as fate would have it, it is my hometown) that made industrial wooden packaging. I, very young at the time, went to meet the customer in person and not only was I able to increase the volume of work for my company, but I was also offered the management of a spare parts packaging and blistering warehouse of CNH”.

Thus was born what is now his core business, 20 years have passed, he set up his first cooperative “QUALITY LABOUR” (at the time there were important benefits) and committed himself to studying this type of structure in depth to bring all possible improvements.

From there shortly, he managed to increase the volume of work and the turnover, deciding to replace the cooperatives by setting up LLCs to become in all respects an entrepreneur with responsibility, to better manage the different types of work .

To date, within the group there are a SpA, a consortium, a temporary company and an LLC which is a business network (Logistic Network), below these companies there are LLCs which depending on the type of work or region deal with employee and work management.

“We work in the world of facilities and services: industrial and airport cleaning, sanitation and disinfection, transport, management of department stores, product positioning management, meat slaughter, packaging and blistering in the world of food, engineering and naval companies, in the world of fashion we deal with quality control and packaging”.

What are his passions?

“I have always been passionate about catering, since I was young, I also became an AIBES instructor. I gained experience in catering by joining both as a partner and as a close collaborator and I had the opportunity to study all the aspects and difficulties that every figure present in the restaurant faces. Another sector I have always been passionate about is fashion – thanks to my mother – an entrepreneur in the textile sector: she produced the first line and packaging for major companies such as Blumarine, Best company, North Western, North America.

I couldn’t help but cultivate this passion and I built a company that deals with textile production for fashion houses, I also started two brands “T-sheart” and “Nelja” and together with a great stylist we presented his brand FROY invention, last season – we presented the new collection during the last Fashion Week 2020 in February.
All my activities and companies can be traced back to the common denominator – Facility and Services.”

Another great passion of his, however, is engines, being Emiliano

“I started at 16 with cross, then go-karting, then came 4 wheels; a few years ago, I had to neglect this passion of mine because being an entrepreneur is not so easy and I dedicated myself fully, recently I have also started working as a pilot again and I try to find time and ways to train, compete and do the championship.

With the great Valentino Rossi, at the beginning of January, I was in Bahrain with the Kessell Racing team, one of the most important in the world, which had 3 cars, including one with Valentino Rossi, his brother and his friend Uccio, me, instead, I was with 3 other drivers and I took part.”