About us
I am the owner and administrator of Capitanio Stefano Società Agricola SAS, a company founded more than 30 years ago by my father. Today, I manage it with my brother. We divide the tasks: I am in charge of administration and public relations, while my brother manages the production. We have been at the helm of the company for almost 13 years, since 2008, when our father's death put us in this role.
The company is spread over an area of 60 hectares, partly covered in greenhouses. For the most part, the cultivation is outdoors and totally in pots.
We follow the entire production cycle: we produce young plants by cutting (only to a very small extent from seed), we check the first growth and then reach the finished product. The product we sell starts from a 15 cm diameter measure up to 80 cm diameter potted plants.
We have around 500 different varieties in production, which are actually part of a much larger collection of more than 2,500 varieties that we consider our treasure.
In fact, partly out of passion, partly as a mission, we continually look for new varieties to be marketed. We test them, and those who are successful are put into production. Others simply become part of the collection in our botanical garden Lama degli Ulivi, which is at the heart of our company.
One of our collaborators, who in addition to being the curator of the botanical garden, takes care of this particular research by drawing plants from contacts, collectors and colleagues all over the world, in order to always offer something different, new, beautiful and useful.
Why did you decide to go into the family business?
My entry into the company was abrupt and sudden, because when my father died in 2008 I was almost 19 and my brother was 15. We were so young, we did not understand much about the market yet. It took two years simply to understand where we were with the nursery. Fortunately, our father had raised us in the company, our home is within the company, and switching from the mechanical pedal shovel to the hydraulic one was an instant.
After this period of introduction, one of the first things we started implementing with a more modern approach was communication. We were among the very first in the nursery production sector to push the promotion on social networks.
We have also innovated production, trying to convert the varieties known and used mostly for landscaping and environmental recovery, into varieties from garden centers. Thus changing the way of processing, but above all, of presentation of the plants, in order to position them correctly for a wider audience.
More recently, the most innovative thing we have done and which has been greatly appreciated by our customers and landscapers, is the 3D viewer which allows a remote company visit. Over the holidays, we provided 1.000 of our contacts with viewers in which they could insert their mobile phone. Once the YouTube video (recorded with a 360 ° camera) had started, there is the possibility to visit the company, by looking around and personally experiencing the visit.
The idea was born seeing my son playing with this type of video on his mobile. Moreover, finding ourselves in this historical moment in which we cannot travel, and having set aside the budget for the fairs that did not take place, my brother and I decided to build closer relationships with our customers, by exciting and entertaining them with this new way of communication.
360 ° Video
What does the future hold?
The most immediate and spontaneous thing that comes to mind is mechanization. This is most certainly absolutely inevitable in future development strategies. Logically, improving the technological part requires development costs which are more easily amortized by large companies. In small companies this is more difficult.
As for the nursery sector, in the next few years I see possible successes linked to the green and ecological trend of companies that push private individuals and public administrations to invest in greenery. Consequently, we could foresee an increase in demand for plants for the increase of green areas at home and outside.
But, this development remains linked to the planning of the public administration. In Italy, the Ministry of the Environment has planned to plant 60 million plants over the next three to four years, but at the moment forest nurseries only have a few million plants available. So, without proper planning, we will never be able to achieve this goal. The public administration needs to contact nurserymen, in order to create a flow of information and requests that allows for the planning of plant production over the years.
The hope I have, is that in the future there may be an aggregation by companies, in such a way as to partially share the development costs for new technologies aimed at improving the production, but also the marketing of plants.
Generations: Leonardo Capitanio (31), 2nd generation
NURSERY: Capitanio Stefano Società Agricola SAS
“It took two years simply to understand where we were with the nursery.“
website
“It took two years simply to understand where we were with the nursery.“
NURSERY: Capitanio Stefano Società Agricola SAS
Generations: Leonardo Capitanio (31), 2nd generation
website
About us
I am the owner and administrator of Capitanio Stefano Società Agricola SAS, a company founded more than 30 years ago by my father. Today, I manage it with my brother. We divide the tasks: I am in charge of administration and public relations, while my brother manages the production. We have been at the helm of the company for almost 13 years, since 2008, when our father's death put us in this role.
The company is spread over an area of 60 hectares, partly covered in greenhouses. For the most part, the cultivation is outdoors and totally in pots.
We follow the entire production cycle: we produce young plants by cutting (only to a very small extent from seed), we check the first growth and then reach the finished product. The product we sell starts from a 15 cm diameter measure up to 80 cm diameter potted plants.
We have around 500 different varieties in production, which are actually part of a much larger collection of more than 2,500 varieties that we consider our treasure.
In fact, partly out of passion, partly as a mission, we continually look for new varieties to be marketed. We test them, and those who are successful are put into production. Others simply become part of the collection in our botanical garden Lama degli Ulivi, which is at the heart of our company.
One of our collaborators, who in addition to being the curator of the botanical garden, takes care of this particular research by drawing plants from contacts, collectors and colleagues all over the world, in order to always offer something different, new, beautiful and useful.
Why did you decide to go into the family business?
My entry into the company was abrupt and sudden, because when my father died in 2008 I was almost 19 and my brother was 15. We were so young, we did not understand much about the market yet. It took two years simply to understand where we were with the nursery. Fortunately, our father had raised us in the company, our home is within the company, and switching from the mechanical pedal shovel to the hydraulic one was an instant.
After this period of introduction, one of the first things we started implementing with a more modern approach was communication. We were among the very first in the nursery production sector to push the promotion on social networks.
We have also innovated production, trying to convert the varieties known and used mostly for landscaping and environmental recovery, into varieties from garden centers. Thus changing the way of processing, but above all, of presentation of the plants, in order to position them correctly for a wider audience.
More recently, the most innovative thing we have done and which has been greatly appreciated by our customers and landscapers, is the 3D viewer which allows a remote company visit. Over the holidays, we provided 1.000 of our contacts with viewers in which they could insert their mobile phone. Once the YouTube video (recorded with a 360 ° camera) had started, there is the possibility to visit the company, by looking around and personally experiencing the visit.
The idea was born seeing my son playing with this type of video on his mobile. Moreover, finding ourselves in this historical moment in which we cannot travel, and having set aside the budget for the fairs that did not take place, my brother and I decided to build closer relationships with our customers, by exciting and entertaining them with this new way of communication.
What does the future hold?
The most immediate and spontaneous thing that comes to mind is mechanization. This is most certainly absolutely inevitable in future development strategies. Logically, improving the technological part requires development costs which are more easily amortized by large companies. In small companies this is more difficult.
As for the nursery sector, in the next few years I see possible successes linked to the green and ecological trend of companies that push private individuals and public administrations to invest in greenery. Consequently, we could foresee an increase in demand for plants for the increase of green areas at home and outside.
But, this development remains linked to the planning of the public administration. In Italy, the Ministry of the Environment has planned to plant 60 million plants over the next three to four years, but at the moment forest nurseries only have a few million plants available. So, without proper planning, we will never be able to achieve this goal. The public administration needs to contact nurserymen, in order to create a flow of information and requests that allows for the planning of plant production over the years.
360 ° Video