Gruppo Veronesi consolidates its leadership of the Italian agrifood sector with 2018 sales close to €3 billion

The company is maintaining sustainable growth by continuing to invest in its high-tech Italian factories.

It spent €108 million on these in 2018, a 22 percent increase on the previous year. Its AIA food division achieved 3.5 percent sales growth, much of it from high-added-value products.  

Quinto di Valpantena, Italy, 13 June 2019

Gruppo Veronesi has consolidated its 2017 results with net income of €2.97 billion, exports accounting for 16 percent of sales, and EBITDA of €157 million. The accounts adopted at the AGM of parent company Veronesi Holding confirm the group’s position as one of Italy’s biggest agrifood businesses.

With over 8,000 employees at its twenty-three production sites in Italy, the group is Italy’s leading integrated food supply chain, making, processing and distributing animal feeds and traditional Italian gourmet meat products. It is the country’s biggest producer of animal feed and poultry, and one of its largest suppliers of cooked meat, pork, beef, rabbit, eggs. and egg products.

The group’s three biggest brands are Veronesi, AIA and Negroni, but it also owns such popular and innovative names as Aequilibrium, Bon Roll, Wudy, Carne al Fuoco, Spinacine, Negronetto, Negroni, Montorsi, and Fini Salumi.

The group’s food division AIA achieved 3.5 percent sales growth in 2018, much of this in high-margin processed lines such as cooked meats and egg products, where it has advanced expertise and has invested heavily in remaining competitive.

The group has always devoted significant resources to high-tech production facilities, creating specialist centres of excellence that make high-quality products and use resources efficiently. It invested €108 million in 2018 alone, up 22 percent on the previous year, and has maintained an annual average of around €100 million. Its Italian food and agricultural production facilities exported products worth €470 million to seventy-nine countries.

“We’re proud to have achieved such positive results, confirming our leading position in the Italian agrifood sector,” said group managing director Luigi Fasoli. “We’ve focused our strategy on branding, new consumer habits, innovation, research, competitiveness, and exports, and this has helped us to consolidate our revenue and earnings despite 2018 being a difficult year.

“We’ve continued to invest in 2019, with a view to maintaining sustainable organic growth and adding value over time. We’re putting safe, high-quality and responsibly made products on the tables of millions of consumers in Italy and abroad.”

The key to the company’s success, and its competitive advantage, lie in controlling the entire supply chain. Its quality assurance has achieved very high standards, thanks to 200 dedicated experts and state-of-the-art analytical laboratory technology covering the entire supply chain. Strict controls are carried out at every stage of production, ensuring maximum traceability.

The group also invested some 60,000 hours in staff training in 2018. New technology and improved operating practices have enabled it to reduce its environmental impact, and its in-house biogas and solar generation facilities provide enough clean energy for the equivalent of around 7,500 households.