Article by Matteo Donelli
A falling out with his boss in 1923 is the spark.
About a century ago, having a diploma in accountancy and having a permanent position in the Bank was an indescribable asset for any Italian.
Armando Morbidi at twenty-two had very clear ideas. Given his resignation without too many regrets and with the nest egg on his part, he buys the milk and cheese shop in Siena from an elderly gentleman.
A centuries-old adventure begins, through two world wars and three generations.
The family red thread has never broken, up to the present day unharmed. Strengthened.
In Monteriggioni at number 33 of the Provincial Road there is a queue to eat.
Pancetta, a hamburger, a piece of pecorino. There's a queue. On a summer Thursday. For workers and white-collar workers in the area, it is the fixed point for lunch. But also for tourists. We share the outdoor table with some Danes on a tour of Tuscany. A sort of destination for lovers of gastronomy.
Simple place, with intense aromas and a culture that permeates every product and detail.
Anthony and Alexandra.
They welcome me. There is barrier between us. Only at the beginning. It is culture in the form of kindness and modesty that floods that corporate room, much closer to a London communication agency drawing room. My questions awaited with their only verbal silence.
Yes, because they have a world to tell, a hundred years but above all their dreams to put on the ground for the future.
Antonio graduated in economics and Alessandra lawyer. Study and culture as the backbone of all three generations.
To thrive in one hundred years of life, the Morbidi family has always asked their children, before approaching the company, to achieve important scholastic goals such as degrees.
Many choices of guts, intuition and courage have always been supported by a very strict corporate discipline and very careful to evaluate every potential risk detail.
However, the good management manual has left room for the entrepreneurs' wisdom, humility and ability to listen to all their collaborators.
So much so that several new products were born from the foresight of some of some employees.
"We are a very close family. Twelve million in turnover in 2022 with constant growth. Turnovers have never made us lose grip on reality and for us entrepreneurs together with our 55 employees, work represents a daily family challenge to obtain good results” says Alessandra proudly. Plus we love our land. In an area that of Siena, dominated by commerce and tourism, we have many young people in love with their profession”.
If culture is the branch of the family, "differentiation" has been and is the strategic weapon of Salcis.
It was Armando who, a few years after the acquisition of the shop, in the early thirties of the twentieth century, had the intuition to increase the offer of the shop with unusual products for the time such as tuna, olives, jams. It's a hit.
Over the next ten years, two more highly successful shops will open in the center of Siena.
From the period of success to the great drama of war. It will be the thousand difficulties of the Second World War to bring about a further successful change in the history of the company.
Due to the meat quota, Armando proposes to other Sienese butchers to join in a sort of consortium leading to the establishment of SALCIS, acronym of Società Anonima Lavorazione Carne e Insaccati Siena, which will immediately bring together around twenty their experience and knowledge to produce sausages to be resold to third parties or in their shops.
In the meeting with Alessandro and Alessandra, one perceives that the spirit of cooperation with the territory and its men has remained strong even after eighty years.
“Our boys feel part of a non-hierarchical but highly stimulating reality for those who want to bring their experience and new point of view.
Listening to the inputs coming from the territory, in 1960 the company undertook another important "turn". Once he has graduated, his son Alessandro will manage the processing of sheep's milk produced from the flocks of Sardinian shepherds who at that time had begun to move to Tuscany.
Alessandra's eyes light up with happiness as she tells us about that momentous moment for the fate of her company "It was a truly brilliant intuition from her father." In fact, in addition to having been able to collaborate with Sardinian shepherds and to learn the production of pecorino, the company was able to start producing on a continuous cycle. 12 months out of 12 months.
Following the seasonality of the raw material, the company could produce cured meats in autumn/winter and sheep's milk cheeses in spring/summer.
Such a success that the company symbol of Salcis became a stylized sheep and pig just to make people understand the new balance of production.
In 1990, the second generational (and dimensional) transition began with the entry into the company of Alessandro's children: Patrizia, Antonio and Alessandra.
They are the third generation of Morbidi today at the helm of SALCIS Siena and Morbidi Siena is the brand that identifies their only shop in the center of Siena.
Many steps towards internationalisation. Meticulous and always with an open ear to the suggestions of their staff. With foresight also in marketing and external communication beyond national borders. And it is precisely at lunch, in their shop that you experience the results of a brand that is becoming synonymous with excellence. Foreign tourists at the table talking about the “Mona Lisa” pecorino, the “marbled with truffles,” the finocchiona or the “Mortadella di Cinghiale.”
You hear them spelling out the names of the many Salcis products with precision, from pecorino to the Cinta Senese, as if they were in adoration of the monuments of the splendid city of Siena.
Alessandra, with a modesty for me at the same time enveloping and overwhelming, in a nutshell, as if it were a due company transition, talks to me about the project for the creation of a company sheepfold born in 2015 in the splendid area of Fogliano, a few kilometers from Siena .
In order to have control of the entire milk production chain, the family decided to become, in part, also a farmer. A model structure at a technological level, with natural materials, focused on animal welfare.
Uncompromising quality is a fact of the company which is also based on maintaining the Italian dairy tradition.
And it is a cultural humus that is already positively infecting even the fourth Morbidi generation, which is slowly approaching the company.
People in love with their land who live every day on those smiles of workers and tourists who know how to appreciate the search for rare ancient flavors that Salcis has been able to resurrect.
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