Torrefazione Pagnini: quality, flexibility, promptness and great attention to its clients
Torrefazione Pagnini is a coffee roaster and was founded in Monsummano Terme, in the province of Pistoia, in 1974. The founder, Cesare Pagnini, had over ten years’ experience in the world of coffee: he first started working in the industry as a representative, then as an associate in a local coffee roasting company. At that time, before the arrival of supermarkets with the consequently highly competitive market, selling to bars, wholesalers and groceries was enough to flourish. However, later on, it became essential to have more clients and it became necessary starting to sell to other coffee roasters that would work their coffee with third parties.
Velvety, the good side of coffee
In the 80’s Mr Pagnini had the idea of creating a new variety of decaf coffee that was supposed to replace the traditional Hag teabag. He came up with a teabag containing 8.5 gr of coffee while the Hag teabag had only 5.5/6 gr of it. He chose a sweet, charming name for it: Velvety. At the beginning the company used the same Hag teabag in polythene paper, but soon after Mr Pagnini purchased some special machinery that was able to seal teabags in modified atmosphere (using nitrogen) in order to preserve the freshness of the coffee, the fragrance of the aroma and the quality of the flavour. That was a big step forward. The taste of Velvety was so much different from the other decafs to such an extent that it was often mistaken for real coffee, without having the negative effects that caffeine could have on someone. In the wake of a certain bad publicity that doctors in particular did to coffee and to its collateral damage, some roasting companies, including Pagnini, had the idea of creating an alternative product that could be drunk at any time of the day and at any age: a hot drink made from barley, the famous “caffè d’orzo”. It was a great success. At the beginning only few companies used to produce it and the orders were huge. Then, as usual, the enthusiasm slowed down despite the fact that “caffè d’orzo” is a natural drink that doesn’t require any kind of processing.
Coffee for generations
Currently Torrefazione Pagnini is a third generation family business, which deals with some special processing of coffee, barley and decaf, using precious internal and external partners. Their clients are represented by other roasting companies or wholesale traders. With the introduction of the single-served coffee container (pods and capsules), the company upgraded its facilities to the packaging of ESE pods and Espresso Point capsules, being thus able to offer its clients any kind of flavour or combination: coffee, decaf, “orzo”, flavoured “orzo”, herbal tea and other instant drinks.
A wide range of products
Torrefazione Pagnini has established strong relationships with its partners through its brands “Pagnini Caffè”, “Filtrorzo”, “Vellutato decaffeinato”, “Caffè Zazzeri… l’ottimo caffè”. The peculiar characteristic of Pagnini is that on the one hand it can supply medium and large companies; on the other hand it stands out for its flexibility that allows the roaster to accept orders for small quantities even under the client’s own brand: the company is really able to satisfy everybody’s needs, from those clients who require multiple pallets to those who require just a single box. Pagnini is also able to customize the product in any possible way. Last but not least, the company also works on behalf of third parties, with the same care and attention that it gives to its products. Pagnini sells and processes organic coffee, decaf coffee and barley on behalf of third parties. Naturally – and the use of this word is not random – organic products couldn’t be missing from a company that has focused its mission on quality.
Quality, know-how and flexibility
The profile that comes out from what it’s been said so far is that of a strong, experienced and innovative company, but also flexible, able to respond quickly to the widest range of its clients’ needs and capable to take good care of the production of its clients. In a world where everyone tries to push its own brand and vision, it’s great to find a company that is able to offer such a flexible service, being focused only on the clients’ needs. If we were in the USA, the slogan could be: “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you”, but we’re in Italy and there’s no slogan, just the awareness that someone takes care of someone else. For real. Not only in words.