Pangram SA is a Romanian company and part of the Colussi Group. Liviu Semenescu, the plant manager, tells us about the history of the company; he also talks about Storci and the consolidated bond with our company. He gives us a few hints about their future projects.
Storci and Pangram S.A., two companies with a common goal: to produce excellent dry pasta. Can you tell us how the factory came into being, what work was carried out and how you managed the arrival and installation of our line?
The history of the Monte Banato brand begins in 1994, when Pangram SA was founded and started the first production department of egg pasta. Pangram SA, thanks to Monte Banato brand, brought the concept of egg pasta to the Romanian market. The first Monte Banato pasta production line had a capacity of only 60 kg per hour. Although at the beginning the production proceeded cautiously, the quality and attention to the satisfaction of our customers, as well as the care for a healthy diet, quickly ranked the Monte Banato brand as one of the top pasta preferences in Romania. In the following years, Pangram S.A. focused on developing the production process to meet a growing customer demand. An extremely important step for Pangram S.A. was the acquisition of the industrial production lines, which allowed the expansion of the production flow, currently reaching a capacity of 10,000 tons per year. In addition to its leading position in the egg pasta market, the Monte Banato brand is also increasingly associated with the artisanal pasta for soups segment. The constant demand for this type of egg pasta and the lack of technology in the production process, forced the company to look for solutions to increase productivity and, implicitly, efficiency.
That is the reason for our seeking a specialist company with a great deal of experience in pasta production technologies, and with the help of the Colussi group, to which we belong, we managed to start a strategic partnership with Storci SpA. Therefore, the first step was the purchase, in 2018, of a Robot-120/60, a machine for automatically cutting and spreading dough onto trays. Afterwards, in 2021, we installed a new 135.1-580 TV automatic continuous press with a capacity of 300-500 kg/h. All this was done to better manage the manufacture of a very special and peculiar product, with shapes from 0.60 mm up to 12 mm wide.
What do you think the advantages of using a Storci plant are? What strong points have you found?
From our experience we speak of reliable, flexible and versatile systems. In addition, the support and feedback provided have always been prompt and professional.
We would like very much to know something about your experience with us.
We met for the first time in 2017 at Storci’s headquarters, when we started planning the restructuring process of the artisan pasta production department. A long journey together has begun since, thanks to Storci’s expertise that can provide us with strategic support to reach our goal of using production technologies suitable for the current period.
Please tell us something of your future projects. Have you got anything you would like to realize?
Before the investments made with Storci, our production capacity was always lower than demand because our technology was not modern. We are planning to develop this pasta sector in the next future since there is a growing potential in Romania for the Monte Banato brand. Moreover, depending on funding opportunities through EU funds, we are also taking into consideration a possible investment in nest pasta production.