We have often talked about the team of Counter e Low, of Eolo-Kometa. For everyone the Eolo, but there is that Kometa which is the second sponsor on the shirt that hides enormous contents. Contents that emerge in a few sentences exchanged with Giacomo Pedranzini, CEO of Kometa himself.
Content built on values, history, and passion, perfectly aligned with the growth of a young team like the Celeste one. It resonates with that enthusiasm and promotes it in turn.
Kometa produces food products, Mainly meats: cured meats, hams, rump... but also cheeses and yogurts. It's a Hungarian company, but its history is long and has Italian origins, specifically from the Valtellina area.
It all starts from the mountains
As you can also read on their website, the story of Kometa is “the story of a family business”. One of those large post-war families where working in the fields was almost taken for granted and a necessity at the same time.
But if there is passion and inventiveness, even in difficult starting situations, such as mountain life, the horizons can be boundless. And so from pastures to the salami factory, from dairy products to industrial sausages, the step was relatively short.So much so that it reached the border, in Hungary, in 1994.
And so a family business definitively becomes an international entrepreneurial reality. In 1994 they acquired an industrial complex dedicated to the slaughter of meat in Kaposvár, in southwest Hungary and where the third stage of the Giro began. All this without forgetting the authentic Italian traditions, nor neglecting local specialties, such as Hungarian cured meats. The mix is explosive. Kometa is growing, expanding, and also looking to other worlds..
Kometa and cycling
Today Kometa includes something like 850 employees between Italy and Hungary, It exports 40% of its products outside these countries and already has growth targets set for 2025.
And when there's planning, it means there's health. The great thing is that cycling is also an integral part of this planning. For Giacomo Pedranzini, cycling and Kometa have (and are) shared values. Tenacity, health, respect... even for the environment.
Mr. Pedranzini, a cycling industrialist, and the Giro d'Italia in Budapest, Hungary…
I'd say it's more of a food company that's making its way into cycling. Let's keep things a little down to earth," Pedranzini says with honesty and humility. a company that produces food in Hungary and sells in several European countriesWe believed in this sport, we believed in the people who work there and who in our case manage the Eolo-Kometa project, for promote what are also the values of our company and our products.
Values, considering your history, which cannot but be strong…
We come from a land that, as far as agriculture is concerned, it is defined as heroicLet's just think about what needs to be done to cultivate the vineyards on the slopes, the terraces, the gradients of our valleys. And it has been a heroic land for cyclists too. Let's think about when they have to climb the Stelvio rather than the Mortirolo or Topsail. I believe that cycling has a lot in common with these activities of ours. Activities that require sacrifice. Even for cyclists, the same applies: to excel, you need tremendous dedication and a spirit of sacrifice. So, then. We found in this shared set of values and commitment the motivation to support this team.. And this land.
And always speaking about land (territory), but also about Kometa and Valtellina, do you have any projects related to tourism given what happened with the team and Visit Malta?
The beautiful, very beautiful thing about this team project is that having always been supported by the province of Sondrio, precisely because cycle tourism is an important part of our valley. It is said that bicycle tourism is now almost as popular as skiing. Think how important it is to have two seasons that support the economy of an entire year... However, I believe that there is still a lot of room for improvement. We must not limit ourselves to promoting only the use of bicycles from a tourist point of view, but also their use in everyday life.Let's leave the cars in the garage a bit and use the bicycles a bit more.
Let's get back to the team. There's no shortage of ambition and enthusiasm in this team. The desire to grow, both among the riders and the sponsors and everyone around them, is palpable. Are you thinking about the WorldTour?
We always move forward, but one step at a time. In the meantime, let's try to get the next step right. We're in the midst of an important season, we're at the Giro, which, by the way, started in Hungary, and we must honor it to the fullest. Then again, the dreams, yes, are there and they're big. But... in this case the boat is driven by Ivan, Fran and Alberto (Basso and the Contador brothers, respectively, ed.) I'll leave it up to them to show us where we need to get to, giving it our all. And I'm sure we'll finish well.
Why did Kometa choose cycling?
I have to be honest: I'm not the first cycling enthusiast. Rather, I have a passion for endurance sports, and that's why I love cycling, just as I love Nordic skiing. I like sports in which men have to really demonstrate their ability to endure, to pto reform as they say today, using all their energies.
