Buyers and Builders
00:43:24 · Andrea Allegrini
[00:43:24] S1: I am... I I've always had ambition in my personal life, but what is... Has not changed is the relation... The daily relationship with Michele and Marco. Even if I'm not everyday at the office, but we go always... We we talk on a daily basis, at least one phone call per day. We have lunch altogether. We also involve employees in that case that can come and have lunch with us. So we do... I I can say that with Mikk, Marco, and Matteo, we do daily boards. And it's really important because in that case, we are free to guide. We are free to this. And And mainly, we are quick. So we are fast. So if we decide the decisional chain is really short. If we have the approval, next day, the decision is taken and the actions are done. And this kind of flexibility is really important and may... But the base is sharing the same value. And Mikk wrote a very good let... Investor letter last year about sharing value. And one of our value is responsibility because we ask our people to become more and more responsible and to do even... And to take decision even if they... Even if on paper, it's written it's it's written another thing. So sharing value is really is really important because if you share value, you go and you roll in the same direction. And in the past, we had some skilled people hired from the outside, but it was clear that they were not sharing the same values as ours. And in fact, after a few months, they left. They left without the need to fire them because if you... If at the management level, if you don't share value in a company like ours, you are not doing any... You are not going you are not going only. It's impossible. So this is the the real base of... And I think one of the main key of our success.
00:45:53 · Mikk
[00:45:53] S0: So you you being part a bit of the investor relations part. What has been the feedback for the annual letters? Because I I was reading them yesterday when doing preparation for this episode. It's fascinating because you can see you guys have changed a lot when it comes to your strategy. So what what has been the feedback from from the investors when you have the organization with them?
00:46:17 · Andrea Allegrini
[00:46:17] S1: Very good in general because even when we decided to sell France, they liked a lot the the the pragmatism beyond behind this this letter. But in general, letters are just the way we write on paper how we evolve. So if you read the letters, it's the story of our evolution. So now, for example, we are more and more aware on the fact that we need to work on capital allocation, on cash management, the management of net working capital to work to increase the free cash flow per share. In last year, we talked about values. So all these letters, it's just the consequence of daily awareness, daily actions and what we basically do on a daily basis in the company. So it's not pure marketing, but it's really a way to be transparent and to share with our investor even if it's not mandatory because I realize that lots of listed Italian companies are not writing annual letters. And it's a pity because it's a very good way to to talk about you, about how do we approach business, about how do you do you approach life in general. And it's important because in when you talk about a microcap, you don't invest in business, but you invest in people inside this business. And so we need to tell and to write who we are and where we are willing to go.
00:48:02 · Mikk, Andrea Allegrini
[00:48:02] S0: So let's say there are some Europeans or some US investors listening. We know that there is some summer in Europe is coming. Very nice in Italy. I've been many times and some of them might travel there and they would like to meet you. They say, okay, this is a great Italian guy. It's a fascinating business what they're building. They're still in early days. Where they can meet you to to reach out and maybe introduce themselves? [00:48:24] S1: We used to meet them in our main facility where I'm located now, which is in Southern Milan, logistics facility where we also like to to show our operations, so the warehousing and logistics in general. We we have lots of physical meetings even from our retails. So we give them the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with with us because we we feel lots of responsibility when it's about retail investing even a few thousand euro in our company. So we feel really this kind of responsibility. And what we can offer in exchange is transparency. So feel free if anyone is willing to come and visit us. It's a it's a... We're more than happy to to open the door and and spend some hours talking about us and about our business. But the branch is in Cremona, which is middle way between Milan and and Bologna, which is the city of Stradivari. [00:49:28] S0: Okay. [00:49:29] S1: And in fact, we are celebrating our... The twenty years of Lindbergh in the museum of the violin in June. Will be a way to to have all the people together. For more than 300 people coming from all over Italy, It will be a very good event.
00:49:29 · Andrea Allegrini, Mikk
[00:49:29] S1: And in fact, we are celebrating our... The twenty years of Lindbergh in the museum of the violin in June. Will be a way to to have all the people together. For more than 300 people coming from all over Italy, It will be a very good event. [00:49:47] S0: That's fascinating and I'm sure many of them from US as well. [00:49:50] S1: Okay. [00:49:51] S0: Okay, Andrea. Thanks again. Thanks a lot for the transparency. Even being like the public company, I thought maybe there are some things you are not allowed or you don't want to share. But thanks again for this short conversation. And it's it's a fascinating business you've built. [00:50:07] S1: Thank you, Mikk. And, again, a big hello to all the followers of the podcast. [00:50:12] S0: I hope you enjoyed this episode of Buyers and Builders. Please remember to subscribe wherever you're listening and leave a review. It really helps the show reach more buyers and operators. And if you already haven't, go back and listen to some of the other episodes of Buyers and Builders. This podcast is built for people who buy, build and hold great businesses long term. Every guest you hear on this show has real hard won experience acquiring and operating companies. And the goal is, again, very simple, to give you ideas you can actually use in your own journey.