VOGLIA, OCCASIONE, E RISCHIO

One late January afternoon in 2006, I sat down with Gabriele Centazzo to ask him how it all got started. I was curious to understand how did four local individuals, with no apparent design background, came together to make and build one of the premier design-led companies in kitchen manufacturing today?

"Simple," he said. It was "voglia, occasione, e rischio" (desire, opportunity and risk)

The "Voglia" that emerged in this context could probably be traced to two factors: a creative spirit and the psychological influence of the post war period in Italy. It is "the spirit of our generation," says Centazzo. But is also driven by a culture of entrepreneurship and by a desire (perhaps typical of this region) to "mettersi in proprio" or to settle down on your own: own terms; own vision; own freedom.

It was 1980 and the Italian economy was lagging, along with much of the world, at the heels of a recession. A local cabinet manufacturing company, PN3, had gone bankrupt. The company was in many regards solid and well positioned, but had failed due to weak management. The purchase of the company was an opportunity to "piantarsi in propio" and build a common vision. This "occasione" was something the founders of Valcucine saw, understood and acted upon. Several of them had solid manufacturing experiences, so they knew how to leverage those capabilities well. Although they are originally all from the area, we each had a distinctive path, some of us going as far as Germany- so it was also a good confluence of paths that brought us back to our original with different assets.

It was also about the right people, being at the right place at the right time with the right idea.