The approach to organic takes place in several stages:
- In the early 1990s, third-party organic products are incorporated into Esselunga;
- In 1995 ‘Naturama’ products are launched;
- In 1998, fair trade products are introduced;
- 1999 saw the launch of ‘Esselunga Bio’ products. Some are produced directly by Esselunga;
- In 2001 the first products with the Ecolabel ‘For those who love nature’ are launched;
- In 2002 ‘Esselunga Bio’ fair trade products are launched
“With the launch of organic we also achieve a second goal: the fiercest of our competitors, Coop, often brags at conferences and to the press about its left-wing, ethical policies, about the fact that in future they will have private-label organic products. So we burn it in time, going on the shelves with organic when they still only talk about it. (…) Organic proves to be a very powerful tool at a very difficult time for large retailers. We are even creating two new brands, even more focused on those values that Coop considers its fiefdoms: ‘For those who love nature’, an Ecolabel certified by the European Union, and ‘Equo Solidali Bio Esselunga’, which we are doing with Altromercato. These are very important innovations in the FMCG world.” (pp. 185-188)”.
In the internal classification, therefore, products bearing the ‘organic’ logo are ranked first.
*Private Label, Private Brands
Combining the organic logo of some products (coffee, sugar, bananas, cocoa) with the Fair Trade logo in collaboration with Ctm Altromercato, a social enterprise that is now the main player in this field in Italy, is one of the three great strengths that make Esselunga organic a winner. Ctm is, at one point, among Esselunga’s top 50 suppliers. It makes it clear to customers that even in the choice of supplier one can help small producers mainly in developing countries, guaranteeing them work without exploitation and an adequate income, instead of resorting to large multinationals.
The numbers speak for themselves:
