Rolexes and luxury cars: the ‘Dolce Vita’ of former Conad executives under investigation for corruption

It might sound like the plot of a Totò film, but the story doesn’t even make one smile, because it was the thousands of families of dismissed employees, about whom La Stampa says nothing, who paid the price. But this is nothing new. The affair went on for years, amid complacent silences and intimidation of those who dared to write about it like me (and a few others)

Quick Take — MDD (private label) turnover Conad at EUR 6.3 billion (4.7% in value)

Source. In Amazon is the leading Italian distributor by purchasing centre? it is perfectly understandable why Conad is a purchasing centre(and why the ‘diatribe’ with Selex over market share makes no sense).

The much higher figure of the private label in 2024 compared to the Conad report of 2019 is surely due to a share of products not purchased through the Bologna central but directly from members.

Quick Take — Conad and Selex compared

Selex like you announced a year-end turnover of 21.1 billion… “We have a similar turnover but there is a fundamental difference: Selex is a multi-brand group that is performing well. Conad, on the other hand, is present throughout Italy with distinctive traits and homogeneous pricing policies. Our brand aggregates a capital of trust and identity that grows year by year. Our branded products also serve this purpose: they are worth 40% of sales and one third of turnover’.

It is true that in Selex there are many brands – and in Conad there are not – but I understand that they are both (Conad and Selex) purchasing centres, like the one I co-founded with Riccardo Francioni (Esd Italia).

And so the comparison makes no sense.

Ideas on the internationalisation of Italian large-scale retail trade from the book “Le Ossa dei Caprotti” at the Stati Generali dell’Export, Milan 11 October 2024

From the missed national champion of the 1960s, with GS – Esselunga, to the multi-regional companies of today. The opportunities missed by Italian large-scale retailers in e-commerce but also in the acquisitions that foreign retailers are making instead