"Sadly, a piece of our past is ending"

I received the title message today, January 19, 2023, from my good friend and former colleague Walter Panigas. "Unfortunately a piece of our past closes"is his message with a link to the source, veneziatoday.itinforming me that Akzo Nobel is closing its headquarters in Peseggia-Scorzè, Italy.

Akzo Nobel is a multinational company, also present in Romania, which produces varnishes and paints for all surfaces. The announcement was made by trade unions who, in a situation of uncertainty, went on strike.

Peseggia di Scorzè! I know that place quite well and I have many friends I met there. Not just Italians.

At the end of the 90's I went into business/entrepreneurship (together with Mihaela Radu) as a distributor of industrial wood varnishes and paints produced by ICLA, based in Peseggia di Scorzè. This was the time when I started to visit Italy, to get to know and love it. Obviously, the people, the Italians, were a great help to me, especially those from Peseggia di Scorzè. At the time I thought we were lucky to have come across such people and to be able to work with such a company. Today I think it was actually a habit for people to keep their word, for deals to be done with a simple handshake, for friendships to be made for life.

In the early 2000s, ICLA was acquired by Akzo Nobel, and we all - first as partners, then as colleagues - entered the turmoil of the multinational company. For better and for worse. Bad, for me, obviously. I got to know more people - with some of whom I formed friendships - but we got caught up in business patterns, organizational procedures and the more impersonal way of working together. But I must admit that I learned a HUGE amount during that time. Now, if Akzo Nobel has taken the decision to close its headquarters in Peseggia di Scorzè, there is surely a business logic behind it. If we don't see it now, we will in the coming period.

Upon receiving the news, I replied to Walter "Anyway, life goes on. I will use the information to write two articles, one in Romanian for revistadinlemn.ro, the other in English for woodindustry.news. 🙂" (However life goes on. I will use the information to write two articles, one in Romanian for revistadinlemn.ro, the other in English for woodindustry.news).

Life goes on. Memories, friendships remain. For Walter and me, as for many of our friends and acquaintances, the above text is news. For others, I hope you enjoyed my history tab.