Cama Group: 'Against tariffs, niche production and flexibility'

'big changes, difficulties, crises, there have always been. And we have dealt with them by leveraging a very lucid approach in analysing the situation, based on data, with a capacity to adapt that is not defensive, but consolidates our leadership, and is aware of our added value'. Daniele Bellante is ceo of Cama Group, a company specialising in secondary packaging in Molteno (Lecco), founded by his father in 1981 and today led by Bellante together with his sister. He does not hide the difficulties of this historical period - all the more concrete for a group that exports 90-95% of its turnover (around 120 million euros) and has the United States as its main foreign market, with 40% of exports. Nevertheless, he says he is convinced that the quality of the product and service offered, combined with a forward-looking internationalisation strategy, will enable the company to overcome this period of uncertainty once again. "The war between Russia and Ukraine has had a negative impact of 15 million euros for us," explains the entrepreneur. "Yet we have not lost a euro in turnover, on the contrary: we have continued our growth trend, reshaping our markets.

What will happen now in the US is difficult to predict, but Bellante is moderately optimistic: 'We operate in a niche sector, where there are very few competitors in the world who can provide customers, like us, with complete and flexible, technologically advanced machinery lines. The prevailing competition in the US does not offer such efficient systems and, in any case, everyone will be affected by tariffs, so we do not fear a loss of competitiveness'. The risk, if anything, is a slowdown in demand but, even in this sense, Bellante says he is confident: "We have been investing elsewhere for some time now, following the routes of our customers, who are mainly multinationals in the food sector and, to a small extent, in other sectors. We have sales branches in Europe, Australia and China, and we are looking very carefully at Central and South America, but also the Middle East, especially the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where we have an important investment plan'.