Le Ossa dei Caprotti’ presentation – Soroptimist, 29 October 2025

I really stopped. During that long difficult period we talked about earlier, I stopped completely. It was a time of silence, of isolation. But then, with the end of the court case and Covid, I chose to look forward. I decided to see the Covid crisis as an opportunity to help. From there my personal rebirth and my work in the Guido Venosta Foundation was born

Quick Take — Historic change: Supermarkets lead volume growth, overtaking Discounts

“From 2019 to 2023, their [the discounters’] turnover grew at an average annual rate of 9.3 per cent, compared to 5.7 per cent for the other operators”(we reported this here). Then there was aturnaround: the growth in volume of the hyper and super channel exceeded (2.5%) that of the discounters (1.3%) . E-commerce was very good at 8.4% (see first table below).

Circana data show how, after 9.1% in 2023, value sales grew more slowly in 2024 ( 2.4%) to consolidate in 2025 with a further 3.7%.

The significant novelty is that, unlike the previous two-year period, growth is no longer just an effect of prices, but is accompanied by a recovery in real demand: volumes, in fact, declining by 0.5% in 2023, turn positive in 2024 ( 1.8%) and accelerate in 2025 ( 2.3%). Supporting this rebalancing is also the dynamics of prices, which after a 9.5% surge in 2023, stop at 0.6% in 2024 and travel at 1.4% in 2025, returning to physiological levels.

Below: one of the factors in the recovery of the Iper Super channel (in which there are also superstores) was probably the strength of the private label, which expressed convenience, and which is beating the leading brands (such as Barilla or Coca-Cola, to give examples, see the second table). A comparison between the different channels – hyper/super/superstore ‘versus’ discounters – on prices is unfortunately not possible to date.

p.s.: looking at the ISTAT data, the drop in volumes highlighted a few days ago, seems to affect only small retailers, not the GD (page 3).

Note that ISTAT has only been using barcodes since 2020 and that not all retailers use them.

Compiled 7 September, updated 8 September 2025

Quick Take — The most convenient supermarket and discount chains

As Food Fact rightly says , ‘The most popular shopping in supermarkets and hypermarkets is mixed:

In this category we have Famila and Famila Superstore (Selex) as the first insignia, followed by Coop, Conad, Panorama. Interspar, Esselunga Superstore Carrefour Market close the ranking.

P.S.: I wonder how the signs in the category mentioned below that of Iper and Super – I am referring to ‘mixed shopping’ (discount) – can be compared since I understand that some signs do not have branded products but only private label products.

Modern Proximity: medium-sized supermarkets drive the market

The supermarket and discount segment with sales of between 801 and 1,500 square metres achieved a turnover of EUR 40 billion. A value that is not only significantly higher than the other formats, but which unequivocally confirms that it is precisely in this size range that the most important game within the large-scale retail trade is being played out

Quick Take — Retail Area 1: discount stores and supermarkets win, hypermarkets and superstores fail

The total turnover of the entire region reached EUR 37.089 billion, according to the latest figures, an increase of 6.1% compared to the previous budget ofEUR 34.95 billion.

The discounters, in this scenario, confirmed their position as one of the most dynamic players: their turnover reached EUR 7.544 billion, marking anincrease of 9.2% over the previous year and gaining 2.88 percentage points in market share…

hypermarkets and superstores had a share drop of 2 points while supermarkets showed superior resilience and vitality: with EUR 12.452 billion turnover and a growth of 7.9%.

Agorà and Selex are leading this segment while Lidl but also Aldi are launching themselves on the attack in Milan.

Nielsen Area 1, which includes Piedmont, Val d’Aosta, Liguria and Lombardy, is one of the four geographical areas used by Nielsen for market data collection in Italy. Compared to the other areas (Area 2, Area 3 and Area 4), it is considered the most dynamic, a commercial reference point.