With patience and also a great deal of tenacity, Giuseppe Meana will have succeeded in building one of the most tonic European companies in cardboard processing . And his sudden and unexpected death, a few months ago, caused a shock in the European packaging sector. With flair and intelligence, he will have achieved his goal of making of this small factory in the Milan area, a major player in the European cardboard sector.

And like he had explained it in Premium Beauty News in 2013: “We must be vigilant on all fronts and, more specifically, on that of our production system. Challenges facing us are not simple. Competition is fierce, we have to keep our prices as low as possible, market requirements are important and we must constantly adapt ourselves. For us this adaptation, started several years ago with the desire to be present industrially on the theatres of operation where we needed to be. Hence the successive acquisitions of the company Coffrets Création in 1999, located at the heart of France, then of Cazelles in 2009. Meanwhile we built from scratch in 2004 a factory in Romania, Dacica Teca to meet the increasingly important demand for handmade boxes. The objective of this whole strategy being to create complete and high quality products, by integrating as best as possible the expertise of the four companies under the same brand name. But this strategy of industrial integration is not sufficient. It was important to upgrade our whole production system in the four factories and fully optimize all production stages….“.

A leading European player!

Among the successful challenges met by Giuseppe Meana and his team, the transition from a small Italian company that was mostly involved in folding boxes, to one of the biggest European players in the field of mounted boxes, currently representing three fourths of its sales. At the heart of Pusterla’s strategy, the decision, to concentrate the whole of the group’s printing activity in Italy, in its historic factory to leave the processing and shaping activity to satellite companies. Another key decision, to only focus on high-value niches like beauty, of course, but also the wine and spirits sector. One of the reasons also for the take over of the British firm The London Fancy Box (LFB) whose full takeover was completed a few days. An acquisition that also occurs in a context of strong complementarity. Pusterla, based in Italy with manufacturing facilities in Milan, France and Romania have been manufacturing since 1880. Their product range covers rigid boxes and carton supplying into the Wines & Spirits and Perfume & Cosmetics market as well as other luxury sectors. Pusterla is, and will remain, owned and managed by the Meana family. LFB based in Dover UK shares a long history (115 years of family ownership) and supplies presentation packaging to the Beautycare, Entertainment, Wines & Sprits and Publishing markets. The LFB management team remain in place.

And now?

And now?” explains Luca Meana, Giuseppe’s son and CFO of the Group, "life goes on, of course. The Group Pusterla, thanks to the envisioning of my father and his entrepreneurial talent, is surely today the cardboard company the best equipped in Europe to face the challenges of our industry. The chair of the company shall be held by Luigi Provasoli, a longtime friend of my father and an entrepreneur and the General Management by Roberto Marini, my cousin who is also a shareholder. We are firmly established in Europe in high value added sectors. We are following closely the United States, where the market is still open and growing. We continue of course in parallel to invest in our production tool. A fourth 6 colours + varnish offset printing machine has arrived in our printing factory in Italy.