Background: The land and the market meet and, together, become the chain
1964 - 1986: Commercial co-operation stimulates the creation of a new agricultural co-operation model
In 1964 a group of co-operators from Bologna knew that farmers and retailers of fresh fruit and vegetables had exactly the same interests and purposes although their initial motivations differed: the need to centralise the purchases of fruit and vegetables without necessarily having to go through Fruit and Vegetable Markets – this to reduce the number of sales transactions that takes a huge slice out of the value chain.
The Conor Co-operative was the first to adopt this model which meant a new service could be created to the benefit of associated trade, concentrating all in one place the purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables directly from producers, managing orders and delivery to retailers and the first supermarkets.
This opportunity urged farms that, at the beginning of the 70s, turned their fruit and vegetable produce to account inside the Bologna Fruit and Vegetable Market, to look for ways to create a network that would make them less vulnerable to speculation due to periodical unbalances between supply and demand.
It was Conor’s own executives who, in 1973, encouraged the first network between farmers and it set itself up as the first co-operative between farmers in the Bologna Fruit and Vegetable Market.
All six co-operatives were set up from 1973 to 1986: Cobo, Quadrifoglio, Copa, Primavera, Cona and Progresso.
1986 - 2000: the Agribologna Consortium was established, the expression of the new entrepreneurial model
In 1989 the co-operatives established the Agribologna Consortium with the sole function as representative of the founder co-operatives but, not even 10 years later, in 1998, the farmer partners had reached such a level of maturity and cohesion to give substance to the Agribologna Consortium that became, for all intents and purposes, the organising, programming and marketing instrument of all the products received.
In that same year the pool became the Producers’ Organisation, recognised by the Emilia-Romagna Region.
Since then the mentality of the Agribologna groups started to take shape: one functional service centre was created for the Group companies.
In 2000, Conor demerges from the commercial branch of the company to become Conor Srl and simultaneously Conor Cooperativa merged with Agribologna.
It was from this moment that the Group took shape: besides the Agribologna Consortium two other companies joined: Conor Srl and Sor srl of Ravenna which, for their basically commercial nature, made it possible to more effectively reach the end markets of the large scale retail channels and commercial and collective Catering.
In 2000, along with the opening of the new
Centro AgroAlimentare of Bologna (CAAB) the Agribologna Consortium acquired the biggest sales area inside the new market.
2000-2010: The Group takes shape and becomes a chain
From 2000 to 2005, the centralisation process of the transversal services for the value chain generated by Group companies, was further developed by adopting just the one computer service and just the one administration and financial service.
In 2006 the co-operatives merged with the Consortium and since then it became a first rank Co-operative.
A precise purpose of the group’s sales strategy was outlined in the years 2003 to 2007: the Co-operative specializes in the large scale retail and normal trade channels while the controlled companies focus on services for catering, in all its various forms, and in integration services for territorial large scale retail besides looking to expand into emerging foreign markets. From 2008 up to the present time the group is consolidated in terms of marketed volumes and services supplied: in 2009 an ultra modern plant is set up for the production of fourth range fruit with the brand name Fresco Senso at San Pietro in Casale, in the province of Bologna.
The specializations and synergies inside the group are emphasised in this new company: on one side the Co-operative that made the investment and kept up plant management, on the other Conor that developed the sales part.
In 2010 the road to simplify group company structure ends with the merger of Sor of Ravenna with Conor.
Again in 2010 a services company is established between Conor and other wholesalers working on national territory, called HFD, Horeca Fruit Distribution, for the commercial and logistics management of supplies to catering companies. Life is given to a new way of offerings services to the market with this new company: contracts with big operators are centralised and a widespread logistics network covers the whole of Italy.
The background of the Agribologna Group goes to prove that inclination for innovation on product and process was, 40 years ago, the launching pad that pushed a farm complex, with a traditional mentality but which had grown up around a modern model, to mould a farmer-entrepreneur into being, able to govern an important slice of the value chain generated by his own work.