Sixty years of engagement
Giuseppe Venturi began his work at G.D on August 2nd, 1956, and after sixty years of committed service, he is ending a long and successful career on December 31st, 2016.
Europe after World War II was a hard place to make a living. Two months before his 15th birthday, Giuseppe Venturi started his career at G.D. This was 1956. Inspired by his brother and encouraged by Ariosto Seràgnoli, Giuseppe began his work as an apprentice. This was a fantastic start for young Giuseppe as in these years, the most important thing was to find a job.
Giuseppe started a five year evening school and soon got a position as a technician, which was what he really wanted to be. In 1958, Giuseppe began travelling and installing G.D equipment at customers around the world. “In my job, I was dedicated for assembling, installing and ramping up the complete equipment at the customers’ sites” he tells.
In 1963, Ariosto Seràgnoli asked him to go to Ireland, looking over the north of Europe. “It became five years that made a profound impact on me as I also met my wife there”, Giuseppe comments. These were troubled times in Ireland, with catholic and protestants fighting each other. It could be frightening and Giuseppe and his wife made strong experiences as Giuseppe is catholic and his wife protestant. “Mixed marriages wasn’t popular during these years. Still these years were encouraging and good for my personal and professional development”.
Another major step for Giuseppe came in 1977, when he was asked by Giancarlo De Martis to go to USA. The task was to start up a G.D office to support the tobacco business, where all major companies were using their equipment. Supermatic was G.D’s agent and sold the equipment, but they did not have any resources for the installation and maintenance. “In the beginning, the only revenues we got was the hour based rate for installation and maintenance, while the agent earned his commissions on the sales of equipment and spare parts” Giuseppe explains.
As the business was growing strongly, I contacted Enzo Seràgnoli about buying land to set up a local factory, and in 1981, we had the grand opening of G.D USA’s factory in Richmond, Virginia. This was a great moment to have a solid foundation in this country.
Gradually, G.D USA developed and took larger responsibility of the overall business. He fills in “All the large tobacco companies were customers of ours, and we had the best equipment at the time. We were at the point, we couldn’t fully meet the demand as the industry was booming.”
Later on, ACMA’s American site was merged with G.D’s facilities. After the acquisition, G.D USA took over the responsibility for the tobacco and non-tobacco industry and soon thereafter, the entire of G.D’s North American business. Giuseppe’s dream had come true.
During the sixty years, there have been many big projects, but one of the greatest moments in Giuseppe’s eyes, is the protocol with success of the X2 in Berlin, Germany in 1974. The X2 has been the best machine for the success of G.D.
I am an American citizen since 1986, which is important to me, so that I can vote. I’m here so I can voice my opinion. At the same time, I’m 100% Italian” says Giuseppe and continues “It is nice to have grown up with the close support of Enzo and Ariosto Seràgnoli, who involved me in many of the most important steps of the company, steps that have given me a lot of satisfaction and have made a big change to my life”