ITALY - UK PARTNERS

LIFESTYLE | 19 www.italchamind.eu ITALIAN FOOD PRODUCTS IN THE DEPARTMENT STORES OF LONDON 34%of Italian Products Highest pecentage of Italian Products Most supplied preserves section 589 products 100 brands £ 13.00 average price 24%of Italian Products Most supplied cold cuts counter Highest prices 5%of Italian Products Brand image focused British Heritage 8%of Italian Products No cheeses and cold cuts counter MAIN PRODUCTS: EVO Oil Pasta Truffle one of preserves. This is due to their long shelf-life, but also to the wide variety of products included in the category, such as sauces, jams, honey and pickled vegetables among others. Tomato-based preserves, moreover, are the most represented product as they include a broad range of sauces, purées and sundried tomatoes. Looking at other categories, oil is in second place followed by pasta and vinegar. It is worth to mention the strong presence of truffle-based products (both white and black) in every food hall, showing the positive trend and popularity of this ingredient in the UK. These products are not limited to preserves but can be found in all the categories mentioned above (vinegar, pasta, oil, cold cuts and cheese). COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AMONG DEPARTMENT STORES If we look at the sum of all the products available in the four food halls analysed, Italian products are 14% of the total. However, there are major differences according to the department store of reference: the percentage of Italian products at Fortnum & Mason is about 5% of the total, showing consistency with the image of the store that is linked to strong traditions and British culture. On the other hand, Selfridges offers a more international range of products and, in this case, the percentage of Italian products reaches 34% of the total. The analysis considered all the products that were available both on the e-commerce site and in store and, for this reason, it might have a bias as it did not consider the entire Italian range of products. However, as mentioned before, the two sales channels have a similar range of products and therefore there should not be any substantial difference between them. Moreover, cheese and cold cuts category had to be excluded from the report, as not available online. PRICES Considering the products’ prices, vinegars are on average the most expensive product. This is because department stores sell vinegars that can be aged for more than twenty years, therefore among the finest ones. The following category is oil, that is mostly made of extra virgin olive oil of the highest quality, followed by preserves. In general, the average price is higher online than in stores. However, this is not due to a difference in prices: apart from some exceptions, prices correspond to the ones in the store, thus the difference can be explained by the fact that the website lacks some products. Considering in-store prices, the average price of preserves is £8.88; for oil is £20.09; for vinegar is £39.81; and for pasta is £6.06. The average price for the cold cuts is £6.18 (per 100gr); and for cheese is £5.83 (per 100gr). CONCLUSIONS This analysis is useful to show what are the most popular gourmet Italian products in the United Kingdom, taking into consideration the most important department stores in London. The report did not identify any emerging trend, proving that department stores do not cover the role of “trend setter”, but are mainly focused on offering the excellence of Italian food already present in the British market. · The full report both in Italian and English is available upon request at info@italchamind.org.uk