Processing equipment

Over twenty years ago I studied Italian for 2 months in the beautiful Umbrian town of Perugia. I would self-certify the quality of my Italian as 'basic' but sufficient to underpin this adventure with my client.

Due to a restructure of their European factories, several processing lines needed moving from the Nordics to Italy for refurbishment and then re-installation.

My role was to work with my client's engineers in the end-to-end project delivery to secure favourable commercial terms from their supplier. The age old issue with this type of task is how to value capex related projects.

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I created a complete cost breakdown for this multi-faceted operation and then conducted a number of rounds of negotiation with the supplier - all in Italian as the supplier's level of English could only be classed as 'beginner'. 

The Result?

With much hand-waving, a good shot of confidence and an appreciation of the technical details of the equipment I concluded the deal. My client, also lacking English in his repertoire, declared the result, 'sensazionale!'