Alfa ends the year on a high note.
A very strange year, to put it mildly, is drawing to a close: the worldwide pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has profoundly changed the human behaviour and has set the stage for a more accurate reasoning and a paradigm shift for companies.
The need to cope with restrictive measures, discontinuous business closures and the inability to travel has forced companies to radically improve on the commercial practices to adapt to the new reality.
This is the case for Alfa Forni, an Italian company that leads the market of the home pizza ovens.
In times of deep uncertainty, Alfa Forni has risen to the challenge and has ended 2020 with a turnover increase of 48% compared to the previous year and with a demand five times higher than expected.
Paradoxically, thanks to the restrictions, staying at home to stop the spread of the virus has encouraged people to rejig their outdoor living spaces and has spurred the demand for products for cooking al fresco. A major exception in an otherwise dismal year for many a sector.
«We ended a very weird year with a bang – says Sara Lauro, Alfa’s Head of Sales and Marketing. We had to fight an unknown enemy in a context of uncertainty. We did it our way, with the tenacity, the courage and the energy that made Alfa Forni the current world’s leading manufacturer and seller of home pizza ovens».
Changing gear to move away from established business practices and the sudden rise in demand required immediate reaction in manufacturing capacity.
«The pandemic caught us completely off-guard. We had to stop the business for a few weeks and that caused delays in manufacturing and order management», says Andrea Lauro, Head of Operations di Alfa Forni. «In addition to all this, we had to deal with an exceptional demand that has risen fivefold compared to the past year.
The solution to this double whammy was only one: to increase the company’s production capacity. It was not a breeze, but we made it; not only did we catch up and manage all purchase orders, but we streamlined procedures in order to better handle future scenarios and business opportunities.»
