Grani & Partners is one of Italy’s leading companies for Kids products, in the areas of Loyalty & Fidelity, Publishing, Promotional and Partwork.
In the latter sector, Grani supplies its customers mainly (but not only) with products related to the automotive world: the company’s headquarters are in fact located in the province of Modena, in the beating heart of Motor Valley. On the occasion of the company’s 20th anniversary, LM interviewed CEO Enrico Grani to retrace the company’s singular successes and to talk about the latest news.
Grani & Partners celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2022, a fantastic milestone, punctuated with many accomplishments…
Grani & Partners will be 20 years old on 23 September, and we are organising a big party to celebrate this important anniversary! We are proud of everything we have achieved so far, we have created so many successes in the market thanks to more than 40 years of business experience. In fact, we took our first steps as a family business in the manufacturing and licensing field as Giocoplast, a company founded in 1980, which was later sold to Giochi Preziosi in 2002, giving birth to Grani & Partners.
You have always had relations with foreign countries, particularly Asia. Can you tell us more?
Again, we have historical relations, which we have continued to cultivate. My family started trading with Asia in 1960, importing casings for cold cuts. In fact, my grandfather is one of the founders of Casa Modena, an Italian company established in 1848, a leader in the production of handmade sausages. In 1980, the Grani family decided to develop strong relations with China, also investing in different products that came from this country, moving into Toys with Giocoplast. We are currently working with Asia on a strong automotive innovation.
What do you consider your greatest Italian and international successes to date?
In the national loyalty sphere certainly the Star Wars Rollinz operation with Esselunga, a daring project combining a product with one of the most famous licences in entertainment. Another significant project was the Flash Heroes luminous characters with Eurospin. In the newsstand sector, we are proud of Gormiti and Cuccioli Cerca Amici. In partworks, we continue our launches with DeAgostini for collectible products with Ferrari and Lamborghini.
For international products, I mention Stikeez, which turned the rules of loyalty programmes upside down, replacing 2D gadgets used up until then with a fun and playable 3D premium, while respecting customer budgets. We sold almost 1 billion pieces in 30 countries. Another major operation was the 7-Eleven launch in Taiwan regarding MotorValley’s automotive sales.
Promotica recently acquired 80% of Grani & Partners. What does the future hold for you?
We are very happy to combine our vibrant energies with Promotica’s enthusiasm and expertise and, by integrating our respective specialisations, we are confident that we can build an excellent future. Together we will continue to develop loyalty offers in the Kids promotion, Automotive and Industry sectors. Promotica, focused on the adult world, has found an ideal complement with our experience in the Kids sector. We are planning distribution agreements in new markets, large acquisitions and an increasing integration of artificial intelligence in the evaluation processes.
What are your latest automotive innovations?
Automotive is one of the most prosperous sectors for us. In the Far East we have developed promotional programmes for more than 5500 stores with iconic brands such as Ducati, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Ferrari… Today, we continue to work on ambitious projects, and in particular, as mentioned, we have a very powerful new product that we will soon present to the market and which will also involve Asia.
What about food?
For us, this is one of the key areas, we have shares in Preziosi Food, the food group created from the merger of the Dolci Preziosi (now owned by Cerealitalia) and Salati Preziosi brands, whose products are combined with gadgets dedicated to children’s favourite characters, such as Dragon Ball, Hello Kitty, Peppa Pig, Winx etc. We also continue to collaborate with the largest national and international food companies.
How has your work changed in recent years, and what are the current challenges?
Our work has become more organised, we can improvise less. We have to follow certain parameters, taking into account many more reference tools. Change does not frighten us, since we have been in this market we have seen that work is constantly changing. We have always faced and passed many tests, and we are also ready for current and future ones. Our main characteristic is that we are able to adapt flexibly, often anticipating market challenges and providing valuable support to companies.
Grani brings to the market a specific uniqueness that is the fusion of two fundamental skills in a single organisation. On the one hand, the proven capacity for product development, both from a creative and an exquisite manufacturing point of view, with thirty years of experience in China and new productions in Europe, also made in Italy; on the other hand, a profound knowledge of and integration into the complicated world of licensing.
