AIDT 2018 Tour members enjoyed an amazing day in Cesena with Gollinucci, thanks to sponsor Lincoln Sentry. The Italian designer and manufacturer of furnishing accessories gave our tour group the opportunity to visit its showroom and factory for an in-depth look at how its internal organisational systems are designed and made.
Our day started early as we had a two-hour journey in the bus from Florence to Cesena. Upon arrival, we were greeted with an amazing spread of sandwiches and treats, along with coffee, tea and juice, to get the day started.
We broke into three groups and rotated through the showroom, factory and boardroom. In the showroom we were able to see the variety of internal solutions Gollinucci provides for bin systems (kitchens, bathrooms and laundries), organisational solutions for kitchen drawers, organisational solutions for bathroom drawers and sorting systems for laundries. We were even able to see some new products that won’t be introduced to the Australian market until AWISA in July this year.
From the showroom, we travelled through the well-organised and -maintained factory. The company recently went through a re-organisation of its production space to add extra facilities and redesign the area for better efficiency and quality control. It was fascinating to see the technology behind the design of the various products and how much of the core products were produced on site.
As with many European factories, the company places great importance on recycling as well as energy and water consumption with the factory reusing all waste plastic materials and utilising solar power to run the factory.
From the factory, we retired to the boardroom to enjoy a presentation on the history of Gollinucci – a family-owned business that was established 45 years ago by the current owner’s father. We also gained an insight into the range of customers of the company and learnt that Gollinucci products are present in many countries across the world.
From here we boarded our bus for a half-hour drive to the most amazing lunch location – a seaside resort on the Adriatic Sea. The exclamations of delight and awe were everywhere to be heard as we disembarked the bus and walked through the resort to behold the expanse of blue and yellow. It was the perfect location – the day was warm and, after a buffet lunch, many of our group retired to the sun lounges for a lie down before we boarded the bus back to our Florence hotel.
It was truly the best way to end the tour and it was an amazingly unexpected treat which we will remember as a highlight of the tour.
For more information visit lincolnsentry.com.au or gollinucci.com
