Wood is a noble material, prized in the creation of stylish, elegant closures. An insight into Wood by Tapì designs.

Tapì was established 20 years ago to make closures a key element in packaging.

Although, at least in the beginning, our business was focussed more on the production of innovative closures in synthetic materials. But as the years passed, our Research & Development team questioned whether these often-overlooked objects couldn’t be made even more unique and customisable.

From this, and our focus on the changing trends in the packaging world, a few designs were created in various wood finishes. They were made to pre-empt market demand which was to follow a few years later.

The opening of our Mexican site in 2014 was a cornerstone that allowed us to perfect our skills in this area. This factory specialises in making wooden closures and has offered the Group the possibility of radically changing its vision, by shifting its focus to the study of potential uses for wood in various market segments.

With all of these concurrent factors, we can now state that even five years ago we were the pioneers in wooden closures. And today our leadership position is still well-established due to our deep knowledge and control of the whole supply chain – from the forest to the finished product.

These days, we only work with wood whose supply chain we can ensure and manage ourselves. This allows us to avoid complex procedures and create ad hoc designs for our needs and the requirements of our customers.

Overseeing the whole supply chain brings us greater flexibility in terms of the ever-fluctuating market demands and has allowed us to develop from both a strategic and production viewpoint, and particularly for the needs of Europe and the Americas.

There is currently high demand for wooden closures in the spirits sector of the market. At Tapì, as pioneers in the sector, we can supply closures in various shapes and sizes, as well as offering customisations and many different finishes and wood varieties.

Over the years, we have created a range of products from our experience in using wood. These include T-Wood, Speakeasy and Signature Wood Inspiration.

T-Wood

T-Wood is a bar-top range of closures with wooden heads, available in various finishes, and with legs in synthetic materials. These closures are also available in the renewable source version – NEOS – micro agglomerate or in cork. T-Wood was created to enhance a basic design by changing the look of a natural material, such as wood, to give functionality and technical performance.

The development of the T-Wood range has also included the technical assembly of its components. In fact, we were among the first to offer co-injection – a technique that allows the bonding of head and leg without the need for adhesive. This technology ensures a perfect hold between the head and leg components and avoids the risk of breakage, by protecting the product’s functionality and the quality of the sealed distillate.

Speakeasy

For this design, we decided to evoke the secret yet slightly elite atmosphere of the speakeasy – stylish clubs that sold illegal alcoholic drinks in the 1920s Prohibition era in the United States. The range includes three different closure collections to mix and match with various bottle types.

Products with an alchemy feel that echo the old apothecary bottles in a refined, contemporary way. Each collection is presented in its own presentation box, containing a number of versions of the closure. Each of them is a blend of raw materials and a sophisticated design to enhance the specific qualities of the bottle it seals.

All the Speakeasy closures are customisable – from the choice of head, type of leg and material, right up to logo customisation and laser engraving.

Signature Wood Inspiration

The T and screw closures in the Wood Inspiration range were conceived and made as worked wooden sculptures, with high-quality customised inserts. This range is part of the Signature collection, the premium range by Tapì for the more ambitious distillate, condiment and cosmetic brands. It’s a combination of artisanal perfection, a technological and aesthetic celebration that conveys the expressive nature of wood through its natural veining and by playing with the elegance of its shape, finish and details.

Wood is a prized, noble material that’s the leading light of the whole Wood Inspiration collection, and which now has two new finishes – Exotic Woods and Craft Effect. The first has been made from rare, exotic wood varieties with a far-flung, mysterious feel that’s perfect to enhance any spirit or condiment with its unconventional, distinctive notes that spotlight the whole supply chain. The second, Craft Effect, was created as the meeting point between untreated wood and genuine leather. The result is distinctive and enhances the craftsmanship quality of every single product and packaging that it seals.

These are not just any closure; they are communication elements that express the values of the products that they are intrinsically connected with. Wood conveys Signature’s style evoking its age-old values and beauty that stands the test of time. It has a finesse that recalls the essential feeling of warmth both to the touch and look.

This article appears in our printed magazine, TapInk.

Request yours to keep up to date with the world of Tapì.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a number of changes, more or less radical, in the normal procedures governing work activities. We decided to interview Giacomo Dall’Ava, HR Manager, to learn how Tapì has reacted and dealt promptly with the crisis.

Giacomo Dall’Ava has been the HR Manager of Tapì S.p.A. since February 2019. He graduated in Philosophy, specialising in Cognitive Sciences and Decision-Making Processes, and in 2017 he completed a Master’s Degree in People Management and Human Resources at the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.

He combines classic management of Human Resources with more innovative projects promoting employee well-being and cultivation of talents: both aspects that are becoming increasingly necessary within a company.

In particular he told us about how Tapì managed to carry on with their work activities while protecting the health of employees and collaborators.

Italy is going through a very unusual period, with repercussions in many different sectors: how is Tapì dealing with the management of its employees and the organisation of work?

Tapì was designated as providing essential services in the food supply chain during the lockdown period enforced by the government. This meant that we were able to keep our business going, even if at a slower pace compared to our normal production rate due to the ongoing restructuring of the entire market.

However, if on the one hand we were fortunate enough to continue operations without interruption, on the other hand we needed to focus all our efforts on ensuring the health and safety of our employees in the shortest time possible, following the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and the instructions provided by the Veneto Region.

To minimise risks as far as possible, my team and I were constantly searching for official information that would enable us to do more and to go beyond the minimum criteria, by implementing more safety measures than those that the government was recommending. Unfortunately, between the end of February and the first few days of March we were quite unaware of just how serious the situation was. Many companies were trying to deal with information coming in dribs and drabs, week by week, and the need to make quick decisions to protect the health and safety of their employees. From the outset we decided to act preventively by adopting safety measures such as, for example, minimum 2 metre distancing between people, screens to separate work stations and smart working.

Implementing a working from home policy, in such a short time, for a company like Tapì was far from easy. In fact, we are a production company and we were suddenly faced with the need to quickly organise smart working for a large number of employees, while taking into consideration the requirements of the various corporate functions related to the production processes.

Obviously, nothing is impossible and we decided to prioritise workers with the greatest needs (the fragile workers, those with health issues or with family members requiring care), then we moved on to the large group consisting of white-collar workers.

As for the production team, the workers used up any accrued vacation days during the peak period of the pandemic. And we have done all of this, to this day, without taking advantage of the redundancy fund made available by the Italian Government to cover this extraordinary emergency situation.

Currently we still have several employees working from home since we decided to maintain limited access to our offices. We have reduced the flow of people going out to lunch by bringing packaged single serve meals to the workplace in order to avoid crowding of employees and contact with places outside the company confines.

Although the situation is now under control, we cannot say that the crisis is completely over and this is not the time to compromise all the efforts made by the State, the companies and by the citizens themselves.

In just a few days Tapì, like most of Italy’s companies, was faced with changes that, under normal circumstances, would have required years to happen. What did this situation involve and what rules did you give to your employees?

As soon as the first hotspots started, the one in Codogno and the one in Vo’ Euganeo, we started informing our employees and collaborators every week via emails by outlining the new rules, internal and external, as well as  the ministerial and regional guidelines.

From the start we decided to instruct all our employees directly on the correct use of masks, hand sanitisers and all the changes introduced within the company to improve work flows and avoiding direct contact between people. This was the case for both our factories in Italy: in Rossano Veneto and in Massanzago.

As I said earlier, all the rules that were put in place are still active because this is not the time to lower our guard. It is also a sign of awareness for our employees of what happens outside the confines of the company.

We have become disseminators of what is happening, also because the pandemic crisis has provoked an unprecedented and difficult to manage infodemic, exposing people to very dangerous fake news (for example the one about gargling with a solution of water and bleach to disinfect the body). In times such as these, marked by fear of the unknown, we are more exposed to errors which is why we wanted to open such a large dialogue window with all the people that work alongside us.

What paths has Tapì taken as a result of this crisis to further bolster the innovation that has always distinguished it?

Certainly remote working is one of the innovations, not just seen as simply working from home, but as a way of facilitating work-life balance. In fact, one of the negative aspects of remote working is always being connected and, with Tapì factories spread around the globe, communications may arrive at any time of day.

Considering this aspect, the risk could be that people never take their minds off work which would have a negative effect on their health and well-being.

So once again the task force team became a group of disseminators facing the state of emergency by developing clear remote working guidelines, including the need for regular breaks and clocking off at scheduled times. Our objective was to meet with each employee separately, to gain a clear understanding of each person’s requirements and to find appropriate work-life balance solutions.

At a time of great difficulty like the one we have experienced (and are still experiencing) we decided to strengthen our corporate team even further and on this occasion we received great support especially from our employees, who adapted to all the rules without any problem whatsoever and who helped us throughout the entire information and awareness process.

Has the role of HR changed in this period? If so, how?

From what has emerged so far it is obvious just how much the role of HR has changed. Communication with employees has intensified and interest in the well-being, health and safety of the people who are part of this company has increased significantly.

A great deal of attention has been devoted to training and information, even relating to personal issues.

The crisis arising from the COVID-19 pandemic has presented the world of work with many challenges but, at the same time, has offered new opportunities for developing a more ‘smart’ management of the various corporate functions. From your experience, do you think Italy is ready for a more widespread smart working practice?

I feel confident in stating that Italy is definitely ready, but there are a few issues we need to address. We often think that the brakes are due to the low digitization of the country, but the crisis has shown us that in many cases we already have the right tools for working remotely.

I think, however, what we need to focus on is the individual training of employees, managers and entrepreneurs, a step towards a change of mentality that is vital for all of us. Two main ingredients are necessary if smart working is going to continue post-pandemic: trust on the part of entrepreneurs and responsibility on the part of employees.

Today we cannot actually measure if there are or are not the conditions for moving forward with this approach, because in fact there has never been one. We cannot talk about real smart working, because we all simply rolled up our sleeves so that we could continue working while protecting the health of workers and collaborators.

When this virus will have become just a memory we will be able to think about a training course for management and workers, to teach the real value of our company mission and to transmit the real value of our corporate concept: not just a physical place that we turn up to every morning, but a holistic body of knowledge. Not people working as individuals, but an ecosystem created from everyone’s work. Not focussing on one’s own specific technical duties, focussing more on one’s role within the company network.

If all of this works, then I am firmly convinced that a real upgrade is possible