“Simplicity, determination, and creativity” is the motto that guides Lucio Rabboni, founder and current President of PreGel. This company revolutionized the gelato market with the launch of several products: Gran Stracciatella Reale in 1970, the Traditional Paste Zabajone Vittoria in 1971, and Yoggi® in 1985, the first and inimitable yogurt flavor for artisanal gelato.
It was way back in 1967 that Lucio Rabboni, named Cavaliere del Lavoro (order of merit for labor) in 2019, decided to start producing gelato flavors in a workshop set up in his father’s garage. Later, he and his wife founded the PreGel company, which has gradually conquered gelato parlors, pastry shops, and cafés around the world.
The company’s headquarters have been in Gavasseto, Reggio Emilia, since 1982, also home to production and a microbiological chemical and quality control laboratory. Today, it has 700 employees working in four different plants around the world and competes in 130 countries, with 17 foreign subsidiaries and a dense network of agents.
Over the years, PreGel’s strong growth has led to an increase in sales volume and a consequent greater differentiation of orders, which are directed at different sectors: gelato, pastry, and beverage. It thus became increasingly vital to find a solution that could streamline the preparation of shipments with different products.
In 2019 a new logistics center was built in Arceto di Scandiano, Reggio Emilia, equipped with cutting-edge technologies that embrace Industry 4.0. This automated distribution center covers an area of 114,700 m2 and hosts 1,573 m2 of solar panels with a power output of 330 kW.
E80 Group, which has worked closely with PreGel for many years now, developed a high-density automated warehouse tailored to the company’s needs. The AS/RS has 5 stacker cranes, 11 levels, and 25,000 pallet spaces to be able to provide high storage density and selectivity as well as high performance.
Furthermore, E80 Group implemented a depalletizing system and two automatic picking systems to make mixed-order preparation more streamlined and efficient. Pallets loaded with a single SKU are transported by the 8 LGVs working in the plant to E80 Group’s robotic depalletizer. Using its universal gripper and a vacuum system, the layers of boxes stacked on the pallet are moved to one another. This second pallet, still incomplete, is then taken to the automatic picking system where another state-of-the-art robot picks the requested order.
Finally, E80 Group’s robotic wrapper finalizes the pallet, which is then ready to be shipped to the final customer. The entire solution, which is fully automated and integrated, makes it possible to drastically reduce damage to product packaging and minimize errors in the shipment of boxes of semi-finished products.
The partnership between PreGel and E80 Group is a positive example of how two companies from neighboring regions have been able to bring together highly innovative skills, experiences, and visions to create efficient, reliable solutions.
