Costa & Zaninelli Choose Kiwitron for Smart Workplace Safety

Today we meet Elena Costa, management figure of “Costa & Zaninelli,” a forklift dealer operating in the provinces of Mantua, Cremona, Parma and Reggio Emilia, “Partner of Jungheinrich” since 2022.

Elena, tell us a little about yourself and your company.

My work history began 14 years ago in an administrative-financial role, and now I am also in charge of the commercial area.

Costa&Zaninelli was born 41 years ago and we are currently in the period defined as “generational cohabitation.”

Last year the partner Zaninelli retired, so now the company is all managed by the Costa family.

The name has remained unchanged because of its historicity in the industry.

How did the partnership with Kiwitron come about?

The first contact actually came before Kiwitron, with Riccardo Breda – now Business Development manager in Kiwitron – and his previous reality, who followed us for the whole newsletter part.

In 2018 Andrea Filippini, now CEO of Kiwitron, knocked on my father’s door to show us the products and the benefits their systems could bring. At first we were a bit skeptical, then in 2019 we made the decision to buy some products to do some testing.

The tax credit, which was born with Industry 4.0, has been an important lever in promoting Kiwitron products. But we didn’t stop at just that. Occupational safety is a key aspect for us and one in which we invest a lot. The end customer is increasingly attentive to these aspects, and we are happy to help them find suitable solutions to their needs.

Which kits/products are finding the most success?

Initially the anti-collision kits with tags were the most promoted and in demand. Later we also started to offer KiwiEye kits that are more comprehensive and provide for problems such as lost/forgotten/discharged tags.

As masters, we proposed KiwiSafe, which is preferred by smaller customers who do not need to do data analysis, and KeyTouch, which is perfect for larger customers leveraging the cloud.

In general, the Safety packages are the most sought after.

What advantages are most sought after in solutions like ours?

On the customer side, the tax relief is of considerable impact to purchasing departments. But our forklifts equipped with Kiwitron devices have also made RSPPs happy: blind spots under control, active slowdowns, increased supervision, shock monitoring, are all no small factors.

Operators, even those with less experience, feel safer and work better when they know there is a collision avoidance system on board to protect them.

On our side, the devices help us better manage our rental fleet. Constant and careful monitoring allows us to be more efficient on breakdown calls.

In addition, the monitoring of working hours, battery charge status, and preventive check-list make our rental truck more monitored and maintain its value and efficiency over the years.

From 2019 to date, we have mounted about 150 devices.

How do you see the near future?

This year the market is undoubtedly a little slower, although we cannot say that we are not working.

Certainly, we are back to working much more on rental than on sale. With the reduced tax incentives and today’s economic situation, many entrepreneurs feel more confident in making full rental investments rather than buying.

Another increasingly relevant aspect is undoubtedly safety: a growing trend is the modernization of the existing fleet with safety systems.

Our company is never standing still; we try to keep up with the times and customer needs, we are open to innovation. We think this can be the winning path to continue for at least another 40 years of history.

Want to find out how our solutions can help you improve the safety of your vehicles? Leave us a contact information and we’ll get back to you