“… We decide to enter into an agreement with the te-desco giant Rewe to create a chain of discount stores to be called Penny Market, controlled with 50 per cent equal shares. A decision by the board of directors is required to start the venture. I vote in favour of our father’s proposal, while his historic lawyer Alfonso Pellegatta is against it…’ Le Ossa dei Caprotti, page 169
The piece is very interesting for three reasons: 1) the story of Claudio Caprotti’s career path, 2) the example of the parallel whisky market, 3) the sale of salt 4) the assessment of the food department of La Standa
‘Super fantastic memories!!!! Lots of work, lots of emotions and also fun!!!! Thank you’
It was thanks to the friendship between Guido Caprotti and Marco Brunelli that Esselunga and the GS supermarket chain (now part of the Carrefour group) were founded
“Someone still has to explain to me why, in a retail market that needed concentration [and expertise], the government allowed a group that didn’t even have a delicatessen, to buy GS (which belonged to Sme =IRI= Italian State!) and then resell it quietly to a foreign group (Carrefour) after a few years” Mario Gasbarrino. This also applies to the New Princes operation
Sales in distribution are measured by gross revenues, including new openings and restructurings. But there is another, healthier and clearer method to understand whether a company is really doing well or not, regardless of network development: constant network sales, which exclude new openings and major restructuring in the year measured
Between journalism, political non-fiction and history, the difference, in my opinion, lies in the research, which in the latter, is much more in-depth and is based, first and foremost, on the study of documents and archives. But the added value of this book was also the contribution of people who worked or were close to Esselunga, a company with much more widespread entrepreneurship than you might think
