Quick Take — How to go from the current 24% incidence of Carrefour’s retailer brands to 50% of GS Mdd in three years? Mastrolia (GS, formerly Carrefour) answers

Question: How is it possible to go from the current 24% incidence of Carrefour’s retailer brands to 50% of GS Mdds in three years?

Answer : To do this I think it is sufficient to look at international experiences and the standards achieved by several Northern European retailers. Those who have reached these standards are even accelerating the development of Mdds. That is what we also want to do. Let’s be clear: today there is no difference in value between the products of Idm, Brand Industry, and those of Mdd, our products. It all depends on how you communicate them and how you bring them to life on the shelves.

Question: Sure. But how do you go from 24% to 50%?

Answer: It is a question of will, strategic and operational. In Italy many consumers are still keen on brands, on industrial brands. But if they were to compare them with Mdd they would realise that they are essentially equal, especially in quality…

Then certainly, as both Luigi Rubinelli for private label and Mario Gasbarrino for ‘big brands’ argue, a selection should be made, with a more focused assortment. This was discussed on 18 March 2026 in Parma.

On private brand shares in Europe read here. Below is a question on LinkedIN and my response to it.

Published on 18 March, updated on 19 March 2026

Factory Positioning: ‘MDD – IDM Strategies and Market

My speech will also start from some of my experiences at Esselunga, where for many years I worked on the development of projects that accompanied an important phase in the evolution of Italian distribution: the Superstores, the Fìdaty card, Esselunga at Home, the ESD purchasing centre, the development of organic products, together with the introduction of the company’s first social report. The aim, of course, is not to look back. Those experiences serve above all as a starting point to reflect on how distribution, the role of retailer brands and the relationship between industry and retail are changing today.

Quick Take — The Gastronaut brings real Genovese to the home pantry: when the retailer innovates before the industry

There is a sauce that everyone in Naples knows, that perfumes homes for hours on end, that requires almost monastic patience and dedication. A sauce that, paradoxically, has only the name of Genoa and, what is simple, only the ingredients. It is the Genovese, one of the pillars of Neapolitan cuisine, celebrated on TV and social media, but still largely unknown outside the borders of Campania.

Until now, those who wanted to taste a real Genovese had to either go to Naples or resign themselves to spending an entire day at the cooker amidst onion tears and endless waiting. Then came the intuition of Gasbarrino and Nicotra, the creative duo who, for the Decò chain , develop both the private label line and the top of the range, Il Gastronautaread the whole story here

Quick Take — Amazon Fresh shops will close

The company will convert its physical shops to Whole Foods Markets. The move is not surprising, since the company reduced its Amazon Fresh offering last year. Amazon closed several shops in California and all 19 Amazon Fresh shops in the UK.

What can we say? Since 2017, the date when Amazon bought Whole Foods, the company had its sights set on a possible conversion in the shops that were born in Austin (Texas), but chose to experiment with technology and, in my opinion, uninteresting. Customers are interested in a few things: prices, quality and service, as well as a pleasant environment and friendly staff. Here – in the various Amazon experiments – there was a cold atmosphere, where the quality of private-label food counted for little or nothing.

Obviously this will have an impact on employment: 16,000 people will be laid off.

Edited 27 January, updated 29 January 2026

Our relationship with FOOD over the last 100 YEARS has changed a great deal: how?

How has our relationship with food changed over the last hundred years? In the first episode of the docuseries “What We Eat”, produced in collaboration with @foodunfolded with the support of EIT Food and co-funded by the European Union, we trace the evolution of our relationship with food, which has been turned on its head in just one century

JBS: skyrocketing meat prices in the US amid use of anti-obesity drugs and increasing protein consumption

The anti-obesity molecule revolution is challenging the model of the industry giants, which could lose up to USD 90 billion in the US by 2031. As a result, multinationals are trying to switch to Europe and a more protein-rich offer. And US restaurants – given the level of meat inflation – are struggling and reducing staff and portions of their dishes