Gianni Punzo, who died on 3 October 2025 aged 88, was a leading figure in southern Italian entrepreneurship and the founder of some of the region’s most significant logistics and commercial enterprises, most notably the Cis interport of Nola. Considered one of the pioneers of Italian intermodality, his professional journey began in a very different sector. Born in Naples on 3 May 1937, Punzo started his career in textiles, working alongside his father in the family business. With his brother Pasquale, he founded Fratelli Punzo, later followed by Puntex, which became a national benchmark in textile distribution. From the outset, he showed a remarkable ability to anticipate market changes and to create modern business structures in an environment still tied to traditional models.
The decisive turning point came in the late 1970s, when he realised that Naples’ wholesale trade needed space and services suited to a larger scale. This led to the creation of the Cis of Nola project, launched in 1977 with a small group of entrepreneurs and officially inaugurated in 1986. Within a few years, it became the largest wholesale trading hub in Europe, hosting hundreds of companies and thousands of workers. It symbolised a new way of doing business in southern Italy, based on modern infrastructure, cooperation and the ability to attract investment.
From that experience, Punzo developed an integrated system of activities that turned Nola into one of Italy’s key logistics hubs. In 1987, he founded Interporto Campano, an intermodal centre connecting Campania with major national and European transport corridors, confirming his vision of linking logistics and commerce. Twenty years later, he promoted the creation of Vulcano Buono, a service centre designed by Renzo Piano as a meeting point between business, territory and community.
In the 2000s, Punzo was among the founders of NTV-Italo, Italy’s first private high-speed rail company, together with Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Diego Della Valle and Giuseppe Sciarrone. The initiative, which broke the state monopoly in passenger rail transport, further demonstrated his ability to think beyond traditional market boundaries and to foster a competitive, innovative business model.
Alongside his involvement in Italo, Punzo launched a major freight rail project. In 2009, he founded Interporto Servizi Cargo (ISC), based in Nola, as a rail company dedicated to freight transport. ISC, controlled by Interporto Campano, worked in synergy with Nuovo Operatore Intermodale and formed the rail link within the logistics system developed around the Nola area. After more than a decade of activity, the company ceased operations in 2023 but left a lasting mark on the evolution of Italian intermodal transport.
In 2010, Punzo launched the NA.P.L.E.S. (Naples Port Logistics Extended System) project, Italy’s first example of an integrated logistics system connecting port and interport. The initiative provided daily rail links between Nola and the port of Naples, as well as direct routes to Verona, Milan and Bologna. Within a few years, ISC operated 600 freight wagons and 29 locomotives, running an estimated 7,700 trains per year, covering 5 million kilometres and moving 200,000 loading units. The employment plan forecast the creation of 220 jobs, including 160 train drivers.
The intermodal terminal of Nola, managed by Tin, of which Punzo was chairman, completed his vision of a self-sufficient logistics system. Covering 225,000 square metres, the terminal has six tracks for freight handling and thirteen connections with the internal railway station, enabling seamless integration between road and rail.
Despite ISC’s closure, Punzo’s legacy in rail freight continues through the operation of the Nola terminal, now managed by his son Lucio. In 2024, the handling of intermodal transport units increased by 18%, from 59,995 to 70,593 units. The terminal currently manages 1,277 trains per year, with eight weekly connections to Milan, Piacenza, Fiorenzuola, Gioia Tauro, Ostrava, Bari, Parma and Turin. Notably, services to Gioia Tauro, operated by the MSC Group, have risen from two weekly trains to two daily, confirming the interport’s strong rail focus.
Punzo repeatedly stated his belief that the future of logistics lay in rail transport, a mode capable of delivering both efficiency and sustainability. This conviction guided his industrial choices and investments in the rail sector, helping to shape an integrated model of regional development that remains a reference point for Italian intermodality today.
His activities also extended to finance and credit, with the founding of Banca Popolare di Sviluppo, and even to sport, as vice-president of Napoli Football Club during the successful years under Diego Armando Maradona. Over his long career, he received numerous honours, including the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro and an honorary degree in Business Management—recognition not only of his economic achievements but also of his contribution to modernising southern Italy’s industrial and entrepreneurial landscape.
