Record-breaking Zucchetti with 200 acquisitions in 10 years

Taking the group, on a growth path that has been going on for some time, to new highs, approaching two billion in revenues. A unique path, for a group that ten years earlier was just over a tenth the size it is today, and that in 2018 had a workforce of 4700 employees, half the size it is today. With increasing demands, looking at the more than 200 open positions that occupy 14 different pages of the group's website.

'Between new acquisitions and organic growth,' explains the CEO, 'I believe that next year we will be able to exceed the 10,000 mark, continuing at our pace. Which on average sees a new entry every three days. As for everyone in our sector, the crux is precisely in the skills on offer, which are insufficient. We still see plenty of room for development and if I really have to point out a limit to growth it is here, in the availability of personnel: if we could find more employees we could grow even more'.

One can 'console' oneself in any case with the current trend, which for software activities, around one billion in revenue, sees double-digit growth in the order of 15% in 2024. Activities fuelled by an enlarged team of more than 2,000 developers, between central activities and garrisons within the individual companies, skills that are now also oriented towards developments in artificial intelligence. With applications ranging from catering (automatic receipt issuance on the basis of the photograph of the tray presented at the till), hospitality (algorithms for calculating hotel prices on the basis of several seasonal and local variables), the business world (chatbots to manage customer requests, software for the automatic analysis of CVs received), accountants (reconciliation of receipts-payments, customer-supplier accounting).

"It is a world in great evolution in which there is still a lot to be done," Zucchetti explains, "and that is why we have brought on board new skills, from data scientists to mathematics graduates, profiles that we were not looking for in the past. In these areas, however, the goal is always the same, namely to make life as easy as possible for companies by providing them with new tools to improve their processes and better achieve their objectives. We believe that a winning idea was to integrate the solutions, developing specific vertical applications for individual market niches that, however, dialogue easily with the accounting and management control systems". .

At the same time, new additions are being made to the group, which was started in 1978 as an accountancy firm by Alessandro's father, Mino Zucchetti, an acquisition strategy that has also required the creation of an ad hoc figure, the integration manager, a person who works full-time to maximise synergies and standardise processes and procedures of the newly-acquired companies.

"We are looking for solutions that are complementary to our own," explains the CEO, "and we have been investing a very significant part of our cash flow here every year for some time. Although there are always exceptions, on average we proceed in continuity with the existing management. By now, our aggregating capacity is well known in the market, and sometimes it is the companies themselves that offer themselves for sale. We will go on like this, because there is always something interesting on the market in our sector, new applications for particular areas'.

Recent explosive growth, which has led the group to more than double its size since the pre-Covid period, has prompted Zucchetti to reorganise its operations in Lodi. The new headquarters, a maxi-investment that redevelops 25,000 square metres of a former shopping centre, will accommodate the almost 1,400 employees who gravitate to the group's city of origin, bringing together in the new structure the various offices scattered throughout the city.

"It is also a way of raising our level of attractiveness to young people," explains the CEO, "by taking advantage of the possibility of designing from scratch, for example by including a gym, bookshop, health clinic, hairdresser's and other services that we intend to offer staff. In any case, confirming what we defined during the Covid, with a smart working policy that we encourage in order to reconcile people's professional and family needs'.