Custom Solutions for Each Client: This is How We Challenge the Logistics Giants

We are publishing the English transposition of our contribution that appeared in the first edition of Red Papers (released in early 2026), Skille's new editorial project dedicated to analyzing key economic sectors through data, global scenarios, and authoritative voices. This first volume focuses on logistics, the backbone of Italian manufacturing and a strategic driver for the competitiveness of the Bergamo industry. Enjoy your reading!

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Along the A4 highway, a family business founded in 1997 has managed to win the trust of major multinationals and Bergamo companies by leveraging what logistics giants have lost: tailor-made service. In a world where forced standardization is the order of the day, LDE has built its business by focusing on human relationships and customized services for clients.

From Bergamo to Europe

LDE is a family business, founded in 1997, which today handles shipments throughout Italy and abroad from its warehouses in Brembate, Trezzo sull'Adda, and Telgate.
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LDE is not just a company that handles warehouses and storage, but a strategic partner capable of managing the entire supply chain - from warehousing to transportation, to packaging - with a level of care that large international players struggle to replicate. Leading this reality, which today boasts 40,000 square meters of covered warehouses between Trezzo sull'Adda, Brembate, and Telgate, is the Bighetti family: "My husband and I have been involved in logistics and transportation since we were young," recalls Maria Braga, Head of Personnel and Administration at LDE, who remembers the group's origins: "At first we worked for other companies, then we realized this was our path, this was what we wanted to do in life. We founded LDE in 1997, and from there we started to expand."
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The company's growth has been organic: "We started small. Then, gradually, we grew: over time we met important clients who trusted us. But we also supported many medium and small businesses that have grown over the years," continues Braga. Today, LDE is a reference point for many different product sectors, offering a 360-degree logistics service to its customers. The Brembate-based company operates in markets such as hi-tech, textiles, fashion and apparel, cosmetics, and even automotive: "We work with companies of all sizes and in all sectors, both in the B2B and B2C fields," specifies Carlo Bighetti, Head of the Transport Division and representative of the second generation of the family in the company: "For some food sector companies we work on packaging: some sections of our sites are HACCP certified, so we can store food products safely."

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The value of proximity

One of LDE's great advantages is its location. The company's warehouses have been strategically placed near three highway exits - Capriate, Trezzo sull'Adda, and Telgate - ensuring a widespread, continuous, and rapid presence throughout Bergamo province, Brescia province, and Milan. The philosophy behind this positioning is proximity to the customer: Bighetti reports that "in the sectors where we operate, proximity to manufacturing companies and customers is still relevant. Our warehouses along the A4 axis allow us to make transportation more efficient. We are an 'open-door' company: any customer can visit our warehouses, and they can do so because we are easily accessible. We don't have products located in a distant branch or lost in a network of centers. Everything is here, stored with the utmost care: I believe this is an added value that many large freight forwarders can no longer guarantee."
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LDE's proximity to the economic heart of Lombardy and Italy translates into a reaction capability and speed that large competitors cannot match. While major competitors focus on standardization to cut costs, LDE chooses the opposite path: that of customization and direct customer relationships. "These are precisely our strengths," confirms Maria Braga: "Unlike more established players, who standardize to optimize processes and reduce costs, we offer tailor-made solutions.
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LDE specializes in customized services for customers: this is why the company focuses on human relationships rather than automation and AI.
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"It's true that customization may cost a bit more, but it's worth it. LDE provides its customers with all the services they need, in the way and timeframe they need them." This approach has allowed the company to build loyalty with leading companies in the Bergamo economic landscape (and beyond): "Historical clients, especially large ones, are the backbone of our revenue, which today stands at around 10 million euros. Alongside these major players are smaller clients who grow with us: we are a facilitator for business growth," continues Braga.


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Operations built on three pillars

LDE's operations are based on three interconnected and integrated sectors: warehousing, transportation, and logistics.
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Warehousing: specialization and flexibility
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Not all warehouses are the same. LDE has chosen to specialize its facilities by type of goods, guaranteeing its customers perfect localization and constant monitoring of merchandise. "We tried to ensure that clients from the same sector shared the same warehouse, in order to offer more specialized and efficient services to each one, but also to always know with maximum certainty where each product is located," explains Carlo Bighetti, who continues: "For example, in Brembate we concentrated apparel clients, because the type of warehouse and workforce required by these partners are similar. Dividing them across multiple facilities, trying to replicate the same conditions in each, would be inefficient and reduce the quality of service we offer." Not surprisingly, when a new customer arrives, LDE analyzes their requirements to identify the most suitable location: space management, in short, is dynamic.
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Logistics and packaging: added value
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LDE doesn't just move pallets and boxes. An integral part of the work done in the warehouses is opening received materials and preparing them for final sale or delivery to the customer or distribution center. The Brembate company offers a packaging service that optimizes times and reduces the number of transports, transforming products into goods ready to end up on store shelves or in consumers' homes. "A major partner of ours recently started producing some goods in China. Previously they were made in Europe, so they could instruct the manufacturer to package them individually. With Chinese shipments, however, what arrives are large packages with loose products.

Thanks to the packaging lines we designed to measure, we guarantee customers the packaging of products one by one, in pairs, in six pieces, and so on, according to the standards required by large-scale distribution. Customers get significant savings on imports, and we offer maximum product customization," says Bighetti.
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Transportation: a dedicated fleet for the last "mile"
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If the warehouse is the heart of LDE's operations, transportation is the circulatory system. The company chose not to be a simple intermediary, but invested in its own fleet. "Our core business has always been logistics, but over time, to serve customers, we also added transportation services," says Bighetti. Today the company has a direct fleet composed of heavy vehicles and vans to serve northern Italy comprehensively. For central-southern Italy and abroad, LDE relies on selected partners. The difference compared to generalist express couriers is in attention to detail. "Our transportation service is customized for the customer," emphasizes Maria Braga: "We don't collect goods from third parties indiscriminately. We can give each partner the type of transport they require, by appointment or with specific requirements dictated by the type of goods we need to handle.
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It's a strength that is recognized: a service like ours is not easy to find."
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Automation and AI? "We prefer to be flexible and human"

In a historical moment when artificial intelligence and automation seem like categorical imperatives, LDE makes a countercurrent choice and preserves the human component. Automation in its warehouses exists only where it truly serves a purpose. "The automated warehouse is an ambitious goal, but you have to face reality," pragmatically observes Carlo Bighetti: "If you're a company that always produces the same product, in series, with the same dimensions, then you can automate everything. But our strengths are customized service and diversification of products we can handle: customer needs change from day to day. E-commerce is the great challenge of logistics, with very rapid order fulfillment times and daily deliveries. Automation is rigid. We are flexible."

Even in customer relationships, technology doesn't replace humans. "Partners who entrust us with warehouse outsourcing experience it as an extension of their company," states Maria Braga: "They need to know who they're talking to, to feel reassured. For our type of clientele, it's unthinkable to replace human contact with artificial intelligence. Those who speak with LDE want an answer, a person, a solution." And it's precisely the human factor, combined with almost thirty years of expertise, that makes LDE an irreplaceable partner for those seeking not just a supplier, but an ally for their business growth.

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The e-commerce challenge: speed and precision in a click

LDE has been able to integrate into its business model the frenzy of online sales and e-commerce, which after the Covid-19 pandemic saw a huge surge.

Today, a growing share of company revenue comes precisely from managing B2C online orders, a sector that requires operational logic diametrically opposed to B2B. "The orders we receive for e-commerce are handled differently than traditional ones," explains Carlo Bighetti. Everything revolves around the "cut-off," the deadline by which an order must be processed to guarantee delivery the next day. "We adopt planning with very tight deadlines: the customer sends us orders within two hours of when they are placed by the sales department.
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The daily 'cut-off' is at 2:00 PM, which means that all orders received by that time will be delivered the next day, barring unforeseen circumstances. What is transmitted from 2:01 PM onwards shifts to the next day. Our task is to fulfill all orders during the day and entrust the goods by 3:00 PM to carriers specialized in fast deliveries."
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Behind a simple click from the user at home, there is a complex machine. Bighetti describes the process as an assembly line: "Orders are transmitted to logistics every two hours. The operator handles 'picking': products are removed from their warehouse location, placed on a roller conveyor and labeled with the customer's identification."
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At that point, intelligent sorting kicks in: LDE doesn't rely on a single courier, but "fans out" shipments based on destination and package type, choosing the best-performing partner for delivery.
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This work organization allows LDE to handle both same-day deliveries and highly seasonal products: "The fortune of a company like ours is having clients with different seasonalities, which allow us to balance warehouse activities throughout the year," concludes Bighetti. Thanks to this flexibility, LDE can process enormous volumes during peak periods – such as the last two months of the year, which alone can account for a third of many companies' revenue – without ever missing a beat.

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