High-potential SMEs

Egm X-Ray: Saccheria Franceschetti focuses on foreign trade and sustainability

New brand planned to push products across borders. Won a tender with Poste Italiane thanks to sustainability-related certifications

by Valeria Novellini

23 May 2025

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5' min read

Key points

Numbers
New branding planned to make the company known abroad
Solid financial structure with low debt

5' min read

Can a company call itself 'Made in Italy-conscious' if only 20% of its production is made in our country? Yes, if all competitors produce exclusively abroad. For some sectors this is the norm and this is especially the case for products with a low unit value, such as polypropylene raffia bags, among others. In Italy, only Saccheria Franceschetti maintains local production at its site in Provaglio d'Iseo (Brescia).

The company is not exempt from market turbulence (in particular, the issues surrounding the transit of products from the Asian continent via the Suez Canal, which persist even though they have been less talked about so far due to other conflicts). In the first quarter of 2025, ship traffic in the canal decreased by 17.1% compared to the first 3 months of 2024, and despite the rate discounts practised by the Egyptian government and the very recent 'truce' with the Houthis announced by President Trump, international shipping companies remain cautious. So it is hardly surprising that Saccheria Franceschetti's revenues fell slightly in the first quarter of 2025 (from €4.5m to €4.4m, and net of the Conai contribution for which the company acts as a substitute for collection, from €4.5m to €4.3m).

The numbers

This reduction is attributable exclusively to the fertiliser bag segment (with sales dropping from 0.5 to 1.1 million), while sales of big bags remained stable at 3.3 million and those of small bags rose from 0.4 to 0.5 million. The company's 'core business' by product line is still 'big bags' (75.6% of the turnover in 2024), followed by 'small bags' (12.8%), while 'fertiliser bags' accounted for 5.6% of the total.

It should also be noted that sales through the e-commerce channel rose by an impressive 16% in the quarter (+27% in FY 2024), and this channel will soon receive further support as in March 2025 Saccheria Franceschetti announced an investment of EUR 500,000 over the next three years to adopt a customised interface for each market, optimised logistics through strategic partnerships, and a strategic use of Ia through predictive analytics, process automation, content generation and state-of-the-art chatbots.

A new brand is planned to make the company known abroad

Added to this will be the enhancement of the Crm computer system and, above all, the launch of a new 'umbrella brand' to support the internationalisation strategy (after all, sales in Italy currently account for more than 95% of the total), which, moreover, should be further strengthened with a planned acquisition within the year. Although Saccheria Franceschetti is a sack production and marketing company, it is in fact first and foremost a technology company, as this is the only way it has been able to avoid succumbing to foreign competition and complete delocalisation.

In the financial year 2024, thanks to this strategy, revenues had fallen only 0.6% to EUR 17.68 million (again, with a decrease only in the 'fertiliser bags' segment), and profit margins also held steady, with ebitda down 8.2% to EUR 2.1 million, ebit down 9.2% to EUR 1.6 million, and net profit up 6.9% to EUR 1.03 million thanks to net financial expenses falling from EUR 270,000 to EUR 124,000. The cost items that showed the largest increase in 2024, not surprisingly, were transport and customs expenses. Charges were also incurred for (voluntary) redundancy incentives of approximately EUR 129,000, relating to 10 employees.

Solid financial structure with low debt

As of 31/31/2024, the company showed a net financial debt of only EUR 516,000 compared to EUR 1.2 million at the end of 2023; and as of 31/3/2023, the figure had further decreased to EUR 0.2 million. Admittedly, on 14 May 2025 a dividend of about EUR 533,800 was paid out to shareholders (excluding, of course, the 106,500 treasury shares, partly earmarked for the 2025- 2027 stock grant plan approved by the shareholders' meeting of 24 April 2025), but this certainly does not affect the financial solidity of the company, whose shareholders' equity at 31/31/2024 amounted to EUR 9.9 million. No potential problems, therefore, for the planned expansion by external lines, even if at the moment the potential contribution that would come from the last exercise period of the warrants (the price is EUR 1.621 per share, much higher than the current quotations) seems far away.

The future? It has been said that maritime transport difficulties remain and for the time being the Development Road Project, an ambitious land corridor (rail and highway) alternative to the Suez Canal announced by the United Arab Emirates, is only a project. And it probably could not replace naval transport altogether anyway.

Sustainability actions

Thus Saccheria Franceschetti needs to distinguish itself from fierce competition in another way. At the end of April 2024, it adopted the status of a benefit company (adding this qualification to its company name, which is not mandatory) and intends to start drawing up a proper sustainability report, even though its size does not make it part of any legal obligation. For the time being, it has drawn up a 2024 impact report and Vice President and Managing Director Luisa Franceschetti has also been appointed as impact manager.

The company continues to market its 'Sackmonarchy' brand (bags obtained from processing waste, designed in-house and sold only online), uses only renewable energy obtained from its own photovoltaic plant or purchased from 'certified green' companies, and in May 2025 obtained the 'Global Recycled Standard' certification from the Textile Exchange, which attests to the use of at least 20% recycled materials in its products. This is one of the 2025 targets that Saccheria Franceschetti had set for itself in its impact report. For the time being, a B Impact Assessment score sufficient to apply for B Corp certification has not been achieved, but is being worked on.

These are not just declarations of goodwill. In June 2024, Saccheria Franceschetti was awarded for the second time an order from Poste Italiane, in this case worth 0.54 million and lasting 24 months, for the supply of waterproof Mpks (Multi-sorting Packing System) sacks, i.e. an ultra-fast robotic system that sorts and packs parcels for e-commerce. It goes without saying that these sacks must be particularly resistant. But in addition to this, it must be remembered that in the relevant call for tenders issued by Poste Italiane, procedural concessions were granted to companies in possession of at least one of the ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO/Iec 27001 certifications. And Saccheria Franceschetti has the first two (covering environmental management and occupational health and safety).

The low free float (very low in this case: only about 17% of the share capital) and the very low trading volume obviously penalise the company's visibility by analysts and investors, although Saccheria Franceschetti tries to make up for this in part by paying dividends: EUR 0.041 per share for the financial year 2022, EUR 0.042 for 2023 (in addition to an extraordinary dividend of EUR 0.041 paid in January 2024) and EUR 0.061 for 2024.