Founded in Imola (BO) on 29 March 2019 by entrepreneur Antonio Uzzo, now in its third generation with the entry into the company of the owner’s children and grandchildren, 3U Vision is a company highly specialised in the design and production of high-level electronic optical sorting machines. An all-Italian excellence that has managed to assert its leadership in a highly competitive market thanks to a strategic vision and an innovative business approach.
by Roberta Imbimbo
Dr. Uzzo, with what mission was 3U Vision born? Tell us a bit about the history of this important entrepreneurial reality in the country.
3U Vision was born in 2019 with the aim of becoming an important reference point in the design and production of electronic optical sorting machines for the food, mining, plastics, and environmental sectors. An ambitious challenge that it has managed to overcome thanks to a strategic vision, an innovative business approach and the experience gained over many years of presence on the market. Despite being a relatively young company, since its establishment it has been able to benefit from the highly specialised know-how gained by the management in over forty years of experience in the sector. From 1985 to 2012, for example, I was the owner of SEA, the largest Italian company in the field of optical sorting, which later merged into the Danish multinational Cimbria, for which I held the role of CEO until December 2018, achieving extraordinary results (from 2012 to 2016, the company doubled its turnover, from €12 million to €25 million). 3U Vision, which was founded with the aim of researching ever more technologically advanced solutions and once again redefining the quality standards of the sector, is today a brand that is highly appreciated on a global level: our sorting machines, all of which are of the latest generation, do any type of sorting according to colour, transparency, or the different chemical nature of the polymer; they also make it possible to eliminate all impurities and defects from seeds, cereals, pulses, and dried fruit, but also from plastics, minerals, glass, and metals, for a recycling that is always accurate and effective. Because of these peculiarities, they are now in great demand both in Italy and abroad, mainly in Europe, the United States and Turkey, where over the years 3U Vision has managed to penetrate significant market shares, growing significantly and reaching a total turnover of around 10 million euros per year.
What peculiarities distinguish you from your competitors?
Our main competitive advantage is undoubtedly our three major patents, which protect us on the innovation front from other market players. We invest around 10% of our annual turnover in R&D in order to proactively anticipate the needs of a constantly evolving sector, and this continuous technological innovation has allowed us to launch three high-tech machines (Fenix, Optica and Hyperion) on the market, which are highly avant-garde and differ in terms of technical characteristics (they are in fact equipped with new-generation processors, optics and illuminators) and quality, capable of solving all sorting problems, from colour to foreign bodies, from shape to transparency to size. Our R&D department is therefore continually working on the design of a new generation of optical sorting machines, to meet increasingly ambitious future challenges, with the maximisation of customer satisfaction, which has always been our top priority!
How important is human capital for you?
Very much. It is our most important resource that must be continuously protected and enhanced. In the era of digital transformation, of the increasing diffusion of intelligent technologies that transform the work of man, organisations must never stop putting employees at the centre of their business projects, integrating machines, systems and people. Believing that human capital is a fundamental asset in the strategy of differentiation between competitor companies, 3U Vision has always strived to ensure that every employee (to date, around 35) is offered the concrete opportunity to grow personally and professionally within a healthy and stimulating working environment. Today, we are a cohesive and well-knit group, and this climate has a positive effect on the effectiveness and efficiency of the entire organisation. Our corporate culture – every year we invest considerable resources in training our staff and enhancing the specialised skills of individual employees, all of whom are fully involved in the company’s development process – has therefore revolutionised the way we operate, enabling us to make our management models more efficient, optimise our production processes, attract talent and create increasingly technologically innovative products, thereby increasing our competitiveness and brand reputation in the reference market in just four years. Today, in fact, 3U Vision is regarded as a young and solid company, producing high-performance machinery with unique technical and innovation capabilities in the market. In spite of the positive achievements to date, the company aims to grow further in new strategic markets still unexplored, continuing to be a qualified and reliable partner for its customers!
For more info (https://www.3uvision.com)
