King Kullen: why the first US supermarket was at the forefront of global distribution

Italian, French and British retailers have drawn inspiration and lessons from their American counterparts. And the chain that opened its first supermarket 96 years ago is still family-owned: in June, King Kullen appointed its first female president, Tracey Cullen, the founder’s great-granddaughter

Saving money? ‘Mission impossible’

Unfortunately, Mango, which is a sound company, is not acquiring a stake in the business: on the other hand, given the current situation – with losses of 35 million for the year 2025 and three further closures – it was foreseeable that there would be no ‘white knights’ available to save Coin, whose brand seems to be slowly but surely fading away

My uncle Guido and the attempt to save the Caprotti factory

In an attempt to save the factory from the textile crisis of the 1970s, Guido Caprotti gradually sold off his entire stake in Esselunga, before being forced to sell off the textile company as well.Swept up in the same family feud, his mother Marianne also saw her inherited share reduced to nothing, without warning or any compensation whatsoever.

ESD Italia – Efficiency and Services for Distribution, 2001

Marcello Cestaro, who heads one of the groups that make up Selex, jokingly describes our merger as that between ‘the beauty’ – that is, Esselunga, probably the ‘most beautiful’ chain in Europe – and ‘the beast’, namely Selex...From them, however, we learn a huge lesson in humility: the beast, in fact, helps the beauty enormously to understand the market and double its profitability