They are all family-owned businesses with solid businesses the Mantua businesses participating in the second edition of Upskill Cariverona.
For Calze BC it all begins with two young sisters, Rita and Agnese, who through the nuns of Castel Goffredo sew socks for the NO.E.MI hosiery factory, a historical company active between 1925 and 1974, which over the years started many small businesses, today the famous hosiery district of Castel Goffredo. Rita and Agnese learned this trade, and when they married in the 1960s they decided to open Calze BC with their two respective husbands, at the same time two brothers. Thanks to the resourcefulness of the two families, Calze BC was transformed in just a few years from an artisan workshop to an industrial reality that now includes all stages of processing: research and development, weaving, sewing, dyeing, fixing and packaging. BC is an all-Italian reality, with state-of-the-art machinery, specializing in BtB but wanting more and more to open up to BtC.
The project challenge of the students of theUniversity of Padua with project manager Olga Popa is to promote the e-commerce "Emporio Calze" online through the construction of a recognized identity of the e-commerce itself and through innovative formats with the objectives of reaching and engaging the end customer, communicating the values and quality of the products and increasing brand awareness.
ITS FITSTIC students, with Michele Tagliavini as project manager, instead visited Maurizio Molinari, owner ofAvanguardia, a small inn and restaurant in Solferino, near Lake Garda. In 1968 Maurizio's parents, then farmers in Lessinia, came down from the plateau because they wanted to change their lives. They opened the small restaurant and, after many sacrifices, recognition came with the classic trolley of boiled and roasted meats, then still unknown in Mantua. The family business for some years has been in the hands of Maurizio, who with his partner Alessandra, also accomplice to the forced stop of Pandemia, have taken advantage in recent years to rethink the entire proposal. They invited some chefs so that they could help them improve the food and wine proposal and service. The Locanda now has 13 rooms and the trattoria offers traditional and seasonal dishes, with great attention to environmental sustainability.
The design challenge given to the students proposes to systematize all the elements of exclusivity and originality introduced by the company over the years. The goal is to figure out how to further improve the customer experience by highlighting the strengths of Locanda Avanguardia's services that are the result of several years of study by the in-house team.
Lebovitz, too, is a family business, now in its third generation, which started in the 1950s, first as simple wine retailers, then with an increasingly structured winery, until today it produces something like 1 million bottles a year of Mantuan Lambrusco of the highest quality. The challenge given to the Ca' Foscari students, who will be accompanied by Elena Masi, consists of a first part dedicated to finding a way to provide more information and content about products and production details to the company's employees, and a second part aimed at finding new communication formats for Lebovitz-branded products.
ITS FITSTIC students were also at Mutty, a bookstore specializing in image books, a place that promotes art, culture and conviviality through book presentations, exhibitions and art workshops for all ages. Founded in 2013 in the former Mutti blacksmiths' workshops, its space houses an independent bookstore, an art gallery and a restaurant that serves refined and entirely vegetarian dishes. All in Castiglione delle Stiviere, certainly not a metropolitan setting, but certainly lively and challenging. They recently welcomed an exhibition by Olimpia Zagnoli, an Italian illustrator who works with iconic newspapers such as the New York Times and the New Yorker, which made them known outside Castiglione delle Stiviere. The challenge for the students with project manager Michele Tagliavini is to create innovative and exciting ways to promote Mutty's artistic and cultural proposal online, locally and nationally. The goal of the proposal is to increase local and visitor involvement in Mutty's venues and the town of Castiglione delle Stiviere.
