VENICE – The problem of the workforce not being found, Andrea Bazzichetto he solved it with an original idea, new and ancient at the same time. For the production of his glass furnishings sold all over the world, he hired about ten young people aged between 20 and 25 and about ten expert workers over 55 years old, among those left without work. The latter must pass on the profession and the values of the company to the new generations Henry Glass from Mansuè in the Treviso area.
Bazzichetto, 54 years old, from Oderzo, also finds time to be the national president of EdilegnoArredo, to sing in the Opitergino Alpine choir and to go every year with his wife Michela to Lourdes, accompanying the sick on Unitalsi trains on journeys of hope. His brother Pier Paolo is the abbot of the Oderzo Cathedral. In short, he is a somewhat special entrepreneur who combines the factory and volunteering, the past and the future. Henry Glass produces artistic stained glass windows decorated and placed in homes. Fifty employees, 8 million turnover, an international market, an exhibition hall in the heart of Milan, the Roma show in Portobuffolè. The history of the factory begins in 1988 in Motta di Livenza from the partnership between the building contractor Enrico Bazzichetto and the art education teacher Enrico Anzanello who intended to extend Venetian artistic glass windows to homes and no longer just to large buildings.
Have you breathed factory air since you were a child?
«I had a happy childhood, with mother Ornella and maternal grandparents, we lived in the middle of the countryside, in San Vincenzo on the outskirts of Oderzo. I often went to his construction sites with dad and this helped my passion for manual work. High school, as a surveyor, at the Dante college in Vittorio Veneto where I lived in the seminary with my brother. At 14 years old, away from home all week: they were the most important five formative years also because the seminar helps you understand what kind of man you want to become. I had to join the military and I chose to do the civil service at “Nostra Famiglia” in Conegliano which looked after disabled children of school age. A strong and beautiful human experience, so much so that before my leave I was offered to take care of the new center for adults in Oderzo where I worked until 1995. I thought that I couldn’t work with my father if I only saw him as dad, I had to first achieve my autonomy. In the meantime I had married Michela and two years later we became parents of Anna who was born with a serious heart malformation and died after a few months; the second daughter Mara, who is now 28 years old, graduated in languages in Venice and after an experience abroad she follows the international market for us.”
How was it when you joined your father’s company?
«My adventure began on June 5, 1995. The company had a local market, it was time to push for technological innovation. Mine was a very reasoned and even awaited entry: it took six months before I got the OK, dad said I had to be an example for others. 1997 was the key year: we patented the first all-glass door, possible to make on an industrial scale and we broke through the following year at the Bologna Fair. The company was so innovative that the success of the sliding doors forced us to move to more spacious premises.”
Then he found all the weight on his shoulders
«It was 2005, my father called me into his office and told me that he had been diagnosed with incurable cancer. He continued to come to the company, then in 2009 at the age of 63 he said goodbye to us. At that point I had to take on all the weight of the company, I was already the CEO, it was necessary to continue the growth process: I created a family holding company and purchased a further share of shares. From here another story opens: the company emerges from an artisanal dimension and finds its international space. The meeting with the architect Nicola Galizia was fundamental, as he fully understood the needs of our market and after a few years allowed us to present the new Henry Glass, also with a contemporary communication language. We opened the first store in Milan, in 2022 we exhibited our products at the Salone del Mobile in the two pavilions representing Italian Design and it was an enormous satisfaction. We worked immediately with Italian artists: from the Venetian Bonfanti to the Milanese Emilio Tadini, Bruno Munari, Alessandro Mendini, Afra and Tobia Scarpa who were joined by Ugo Nespolo and Riccardo Dalisio. Thus was born the “Veneto Vetro Collection” in which we experimented with the possibility of new solutions: from murrine to tapestry brought inside a glass window and a sliding door with glass for the home”.
Is it complicated to be a national president?
«The associative aspect has always been present, first in Confindustria Treviso, then at a national level with Edilegno Arredo in which I represented the Doors group. I always say that associations are good if you get involved and I got involved right up to the national presidency. This is a sector very closely linked to the construction sector which at the basis of everything and today there is the big problem of the bonus and what the Government wants to do. If they get a bonus, companies reinvent themselves, reprogram themselves; but if everything changes in an instant the uncertainty can have disastrous consequences.”
Is it easier to sing in the Alpine choir?
«Music is another passion, as a child I went to music school playing the piccolo and the flute, but a little reluctantly. In middle school I had the chance to play in the Oderzo band and everything changed. In the seminary I had the foundations of a classical musical culture. When I was married I directed the very small choir of my parish, then we joined the choir of the Cathedral of Oderzo. When maestro Claudio Prevedel, who also directs the Ana choir, called me in 2014, it was the fulfillment of a dream: for us the Alpini, the Piave, the Great War were the story of our grandparents. I have a hat with a feather, anyone who has done civil service is admitted as an honorary Alpine soldier.”
And the experience of traveling to Lourdes?
«It starts from a personal event that marked me: in 1979, at nine years old, I was on a construction site with my father, construction sites are dangerous, I ended up under a moving truck and was injured in the foot. My parents had planned to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in Lourdes where they had been on their honeymoon. We went anyway, I in a wheelchair, and it was a special experience: for the first time I saw the stretcher bearers and the “sisters”, all the volunteers who help the sick. I didn’t understand what it was about, but I was happy because being in a wheelchair they always let me pass ahead. In 1984 I returned to Lourdes with Unitalsi and a very strong bond remained. I repeated it with Michela and our Unitalsi adventure has never stopped, today I preside over the Unitalsi of Vittorio Veneto. This also counted in my choice of work with “Nostra Famiglia”. A fantastic experience which also allowed me to graduate in Educational Science.”
What does he want to be when he grows up?
«It’s very difficult today for me to understand what to do when I grow up. I consider myself a lucky man, both because I do something I like and because I work with my wife who makes up for what I lack and I like that our daughter has also integrated. I have a great hobby, the camper: I use it for work and I also spend my holidays in it.”
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