facing the tide of covid crisis management. driving innovation. The Coccato e Mezzetti case

Coccato e Mezzetti S.r.l. is a medium-sized enterprise in the funerary and sanitary business with around 60 employees located in the North of Italy. The company was established in 1983 and decided to integrate forward from funerary products, moving into the supply of funerary services. Even if the company has diversified its strategy including the traditional funerary services in addition to manufacturing products, it never stopped innovating over the years. One significant example is the cooperation that the company developed with Novamont. By cooperating with Novamont, which in the early nineties was facing a very difficult period, C&M developed a technology capable of coupling a layer of Mater-Bi® with other materials of natural origin, such as textile fibres, paper, and cardboard. This allowed C&M to be the first company to introduce products in the sector that paired biodegradability and compostability characteristics without altering the main usability of the material. Its constant attention to innovation and the continuous collaboration with local partners – both suppliers and customers – allows C&M to develop a set of capabilities that proved to be essential during the difficult months of the pandemic. The company was able to quickly switch production to masks and to significantly increase the production of personal protective equipment. which was in high demand during the difficult times of the pandemic. The company also overcame all the limits generated by the stops to the international free movement of goods generated by the lockdown measures by relying on a network of partners located nearby