“One of the main strengths of SIP is exactly the complete product range”

“When I visit SIP after 7 years for the second time, I have noticed many positive changes. At first, people were very motivated, products renewed and well designed, and at the same time, I noticed large investments in the modernization of production and the factory. For me, they were all positive signs of good cooperation in the future,” says Nicoló Roveda, general manager of SAVE s.p.a. from Italy.

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Interview with Nicoló Roveda, Save s.p.a.
Nicoló Roveda is a director of our Italian partner SAVE s.p.a. He joined the family business 25 years ago and has managed it for the last 23 years.

The performance of the leading distributor of agricultural machinery in Italy is the result of the efforts of several generations. We talked to Nicoló Roveda about his beginnings, challenges and also about how he sees working with SIP. He also confided in us how his private life thrives despite all his obligations.

Company SAVE was established in 1956. What was the company like in 1958 when your father joined the business? 

The company was founded to import Welger and Stoll equipment. Today we still sell Stoll and we see this as proof of the fact that we look for long-term relationships with suppliers and dealers. In 1960 we started with Amazone which is now our biggest supplier. The best market share is obtained with historical brands and significant success can be achieved only in long term consistency and persistency in the market. 

When did you join the family company? Has the agricultural industry always been a part of your life? You can tell us more about SAVE?

I start working for SAVE right after I finished university in 1995 and my sister and my cousin started 10 years before me. From 1997, I took over the management of the company when my father suddenly passed away. When I started, the largest part of our business was selling tractors. Today we concentrate on implements only, covering the full demand for arable and dairy farms. We always try to select brands with professional products to differentiate ourselves against the cheap Italian producers.

You are very passionate about your work and products in your portfolio. Owners of big companies typically assign a product manager to a new brand and let product managers do all the presentations and training. But in your case, you’ve prepared all the necessary training tools yourself. You started to promote our brand among your dealer network, mostly by yourself. Where did your passion come from?

What you are saying is not completely correct. I have a very good salesman which did most of the job and a very good after-sales team. On the other hand, Roveda is a heavy name to carry. We are very respected and I use my name to start a process and a project that I consider very important for our company. Presentation at our farms, visit with dealers at SIP, and a first visit to our main dealers as the starter of the project. From that point, SAVE is very well organised and everything runs like clockwork.

Your company was observing SIP for a long time. Could you share with us why you haven’t decided to cooperate with us back then, and what convinced you in 2018/2019 to reconsider the partnership?

When I visited SIP after 7 years for the second time, I noticed many positive changes. At first, people were very motivated, products renewed and well designed, and at the same time, I noticed large investments in the modernisation of production and the factory. For me, they were all positive signs of good cooperation in the future.

What is your view on SIP products and services compared to the rest of SAVE’s product portfolio?

I am generally satisfied with SIP products, the quality is definitely at a high level. As an organisation, you have progressed in sales. Opportunity for improvement I see mainly in the finishing details, solving mistakes, and after-sales and support activities. Any machine can break but this could be a resource as well if we can show our customer how efficient we are in providing solutions.

From your perspective, how did the Italian market accept “a new” player in your portfolio?

In the north and centre of Italy, we got very good acceptance. The old supplier was not accepted anymore due to lack of range and quality of the product. On the other hand, the dealer network was there and it was relatively easy to get started. It was a different story in the south and on the island where the main product is the single rotor rake. STAR line is very professional but too expensive for this market and therefore we encountered some more difficulties but we won’t give up. It is a question of time because any market will move to more professional products and it will happen in our southern region as well.

If we look at the Italian market. You have Pianura Padana in the north, the central agricultural region in Italy, the Apennines in the centre of the country, and specific rocky regions in the south and the islands. How do you manage to cope with such diversity in the market? What are the main challenges you are facing?

It is just more fun for us. We have a huge diversity in our market and we well from the very basic alp line up to very professional. We are used to it with any of our suppliers and one of the main strengths of SIP is exactly the complete product range. This was one of the main reasons why, during the last few years, we were on the lookout to start a cooperation with you.

We often talk about the fact that customers are not just customers, but also our partners. Your dealer network consists of more than 100 dealers, and we believe that you have excellent relations with all of them. In July 2019, you organised a stunning SIP introduction conference on your farm near Milano. We were impressed with your effort of inviting nearly all of them to the introduction session of the SIP brand on your farm near Milano in July 2019. What would be your advice on how to build such a relationship with customers?

As it has been said before, the success of a company is not built in a day. It is a question of being loyal, acting correctly with our dealers at any time. We gained the respect of our partners over decades by doing a professional job made possible by two generations. Wherever I go, whoever I visit, I always find an open door because in one way or another all dealers know about SAVE and the way we work. We have several dealers who have been working with us for 50, 40 or 30 years and with a lot of them, we have a very familiar relation. This way of working is our trademark and this is the main attribute that separates us from large corporations, where personal relationships are often lacking. This is why we received our partners on our farm, offering food there rather than at a restaurant. We are a family company and we are proud of it.

This year we can’t go visiting our partners, due to the current situation with the pandemic. Customer support faced serious challenges due to the complete lockdown. How did you cope with the given situation? How did you manage to stay in contact with your customers?

It was a very difficult task and again our relationships were of great help. Dealers simply rely on us and even if our visits were not so frequent we did not suffer that much. For sure in normal time we would have achieved better results. Introducing a new brand without having the chance of making active promotions like a presentation at the dealer’s place or more visits at the SIP plant was a limiting factor especially for SIP which is somehow a newcomer in the market.

Your professional career requires a lot of travelling. Does that mean you have to make sacrifices in your private life? How does your family support you, and who is Nicoló Roveda in his free time?

I was lucky to marry a fantastic girl who always supports me. I am lucky as well to have my sister and my cousin in the office. I have been fortunate to find very good employees who are very professional and over the years we have built an organisation that works very well. 

The combination of all of these factors was leaving me the time to travel everywhere. The market is outside. It is not in our office. After 25 years all I can say is that I know every single corner of the Italian market and this is the knowhow we carry as a company. Anyway, I still have enough free time for myself and I am enjoying life with my family and my friends over the weekend or on holiday and I am still able to ride 5000 km with my bike every year. I feel good!