Drafted 4 August 2020, updated 12 April 2026
I use this article to describe, also through all the related links, the parable of Eataly, which at its inception fascinated me greatly.
In 2007 I had met Oscar Farinetti (1) who had offered me the possibility of becoming a partner in his company. I had declined, partly because, at the time, I did not have the means to buy the shares he made available to me.
About the operation of Eataly on 4 August 2020 I wrote :
A)‘Fico Eataly World is a splendid idea realised in the wrong city: Bologna is not a city of art and is off the beaten track of the great tourist flows.
But then again, building it elsewhere would have cost too much, whereas the current location was offered free of charge by the municipality of Bologna.
Fico (26 shareholders including Eataly and Coop Alleanza 3.0): visitors stopped at 1.6 million against the expected 4 million (2).
revenues slipped below 40 million, Ebitda was negative 4.3 million and net loss 3.1 million.
Not a dramatic loss, but the problem is the sustainability of the world’s largest food park (opened in November 2017) in the medium to long term‘(Aziende in Campo).
B) Eataly, whose revenues rose in 2019 to 527 million ( 7% (3)) asked for – and obtained with a simplified procedure – a loan of 105 million, 90% guaranteed by SACE (source: Corriere Economia 3 August 2020).
Eataly ‘s revenues come 45% from the US (4) and during the lockdown due to the coronavirus, e-commerce was boosted.
Conclusion: I have always said that the company should not have set up in Italy but only abroad.
I say this all the more because I was the ‘creator’ of a similar format, which, in Milan, Genoa and Brescia, did not work (QB Mercato e Cucina).
That said, how many companies in Italy have received premises without paying rent and have received loans of more than €100 million with ‘simplified procedure’?
The Corriere also says that Eataly was ‘among the first’ to access this modality.
And I wondered: will these ‘fast lanes’ – with the new openings – be enough to save Eataly from the coronavirus?
On 14 August 2022 I added my answer: ‘looking at the current results, it would seem not‘(Fico, three million euro losses).
The market’s final answer to this question of mine came a month later, on 20 September 2022 , with the sale of the controlling stake in Farinetti’s company (on this subject you can read : Eataly: agreement with Investindustrial, first partner at 52% and Eataly: losses at 31 million, debt at 200 million for a turnover of €464 million.
What has Eatalybeen missing all these years?
Certainly, as I said for Autogrill, a strong private brand that would enhance the value of Italian-made products abroad, because the big brands were fine there at the beginning, but then they probably became too recognisable and comparable with the offer of traditional supermarkets. And so it became difficult to differentiate the products of a chain that wanted to be premium.
Among other things, for Autogrill, the products were always a ‘di cui’ (large space dedicated to catering, products only complementary) while for Eataly, they had to represent, with catering, the core business.
But while Oscar Farinetti,as Mario Gasbarrino says, was ‘a beacon’, the chain, as well as having an ‘Italian problem’, had to evolve .
On this subject read also: some considerations on the food proposition of la Rinascente, Coin, Eataly, Grande Epicerie, El Corte Ingles, Harrods(5).
p.s.. the Corriere of 23 September 2022 writes: ‘the 200 million capital increase underwritten by Investindustrial will serve on the one hand to substantially reduce the net debt to zero (but the debt with Sace (6) will be maintained), and on the other to acquire the 40% of Eataly USA in the hands of the Bastianich and Saper…. families’. And an even more bitter ending looms for FICO as Stefano Cigarini, the CEO of the ‘relaunch’, was removed in March 2023. Find more data and a point of view on the subject here.
On the subject of Eataly read also :
Eataly workers ready to strike
Eataly closes 2022 with revenues of 605 million, up 30%
Farinetti acquires 100% of the management of the Fico park
Eataly lost €25.8 million in 2022
Fico in Bologna closes and changes name, Farinetti: ‘It will be called Grand Tour Italia’ (given the assumptions I fear the name change and restyling will serve little purpose)
Eataly aims for a ‘non-loss-making’ 2023
Eataly cuts the ribbon at Roma Termini but the USA drives growth (2025)
Eataly: “the partisan Oscar”. An episode of Report not to be missed (2025)
Grand Tour Italia, 5 months after opening the new flop is already around the corner (2025)
Eataly Verona: the reasons for the bankruptcy and the future of the workers (2025)
Eataly Verona closes, 33 workers at risk of dismissal (2025)
Eataly, with Avolta, opens at JFK: the first shop in a North American airport (2026)
In time for Milan Cortina 2026, the new Eataly Collection concept opens at Linate
Green Pea in Turin, after Fico another flop for Oscar Farinetti (2026)
(2) in 2019. By 2020 it should have been 6 million.
(3) it turned out in September 2022 that the current figures are much lower – probably because of Covid – than the figure stated then.
(4) Today, US revenues account for 60% of the total (Corriere della Sera 23 September 2022). Andrea Bonomi will probably concentrate his efforts on that market. This strategy was confirmed in December 2022: Eataly makes an encore in Toronto and lands on Italian TV
(5) : ‘Eataly is a case apart: although its patron Oscar Farinetti holds shares in companies of products sold on the shelves of its outlets (in addition to Fontanafredda, there are Antica Ardenga (cured meats), Afeltra (pasta from Gragnano), Serafini and Vidotto (wine), La Granda (meat), Baladin (beer), etc.) it has no private-label products under the chain’s brand name.
The fact remains that Eataly has a turnover of less than €600 million, LVMH €54 billion (15% in 2019).
Eataly is struggling while LVMH had net profits of 7 billion ( 13%- Source : Le Monde 8 February 2020).
As Ferruccio De Bortoli said (Corriere della Sera 10 February 2020) : “dwarfism is a condemnation, not romantic wealth”.
One hopes that this will change with the advent of new ownership and some signs seem to be there :
Eataly, with Avolta, opens at JFK: it is the first shop in a North American airport (2026)
In time for Milan Cortina 2026, the new Eataly Collection concept opens at Linate
(6) Who knows with what interest rate.
