00:00Highlights for you last year as you expand the footprint of the business?
00:03Last year was an important year because we opened 13 new stores and we reached the 70th
00:09number of stores mark.
00:11We are now in 17 different countries, three continents.
00:15Most important number, more than 5,500 employees.
00:18I mean, we're discussing a company that was a family small startup in Torino only in 2007.
00:25So we're pretty excited to export this Italian way of living through food all over the world.
00:30Okay.
00:31In terms of overseas markets, currently, of course, the footprint is mostly in the U.S.,
00:35but of course you have a number of stores around in the Asia Pacific.
00:39So our business is roughly 50% in North America, U.S. and Canada, 40% in Europe, and the rest
00:4410% goes between Middle East and Korea and Japan.
00:48Right.
00:49Do you have any priorities between those markets this year?
00:51Well, North America, it's the country where we see we have the most potential.
00:56We're already there.
00:57We have so many grounds we still need to cover, and it's easier to develop for us right now.
01:02But we're looking at the world.
01:04It's a very specific moment in time, and we're looking at any opportunity that we really feel
01:08fits our brand and value.
01:10Now, I want to ask you, too, because a lot of people are trying to figure out the state
01:14of the U.S. economy and really consumer appetite, literally and figuratively, for example, in
01:19your case.
01:21How would you describe demand in your U.S. stories?
01:23And also, I want to understand cost pressure, too, because people talk about inflation every
01:26day, and I wonder how you're feeling that.
01:28I think in U.S. we're seeing, actually, what we're seeing more or less across the world, usually
01:33in U.S., it just happens faster and earlier.
01:35Yeah.
01:36We're seeing a shift between sit-down restaurants to more quick-service, fast-paced F&B or deliver
01:45retail at all, maybe pre-sized, pre-cooked, ready to be eaten.
01:49Okay.
01:50I guess it's a combination of diminishing power, higher pricing, and also this willingness
01:57of convenience and fast-paced that we keep requiring nowadays.
02:01Right.
02:02This is the shifting that we're seeing the most in the U.S. The demand is there.
02:06We're doing very well.
02:07We're very happy.
02:08But clearly, today, you need to watch the market every day to understand what the next
02:12app should be.
02:13And what do you think is the most important consumer trend you've noticed across the world
02:18as you travel and look at your different businesses?
02:20I think that's the one.
02:21In fact, last year, we opened our first called Italy Cafe.
02:24We did three in New York.
02:25Okay.
02:25It's a very small Italian coffee bar, 200, 300 square meters, where everything is incredibly
02:33fast, super high quality, and you can go from breakfast all the way to early dinner, from
02:38cornetto cappuccino to salad, pizza, you name it.
02:42That quick.
02:42And people do not want to lose quality, but they want to spend a little less than they're
02:49used to, and I think this format is killing it.
02:51And I guess from a financial perspective, intuitively, I just think it's better that there's quicker
02:57turnover.
02:58And the less time people stay in your stores, probably the better.
03:02But how do you approach it?
03:03Because people want convenience, and they want things quick.
03:06Look, our format is very resilient, right?
03:09Because when we look at our flagship, we have retail, we have sit-down restaurants, and we
03:13have quick service, we have events, and we have classes, all together under one roof.
03:18So we are capable of moving the revenue through the year, or through the months, now probably
03:23through the quarters, for what people are looking for.
03:26So we can explore more our retail opportunity, adding more tables in certain moments of the
03:31year.
03:32So it's easier for us than probably other businesses to adapt to customers.
03:35Right.
03:36And clearly, you know, the Italian offering is what you bring the most, and we were just
03:39talking about this.
03:40You know, what among the ingredients or things that you sell, do you source locally?
03:46And what are non-negotiables, that they need to be sourced from Italy?
03:49So for us, being Italian is about tradition, about recipe, and about the real products that
03:56really define our cuisine.
03:57Take wine, or olive oil, or Italian pasta.
04:01But in each country we go, we try to thank the country, and be more sustainable, and source
04:07an incredible amount of array of ingredients there.
04:10Like, we make cappuccinos with different milk in each city that we go, because we want to partner
04:15with a local farmer.
04:16The same truth is for a lot of vegetables, fish, meat, you name it.
04:20So actually, when you go to look at our store, probably more than 50% of the product we consume
04:26are actually local.
04:27How much have you set aside for expansion this year?
04:30This year, we have confirmed so far 15 new stores.
04:34Right.
04:34Maybe a couple more are going to add.
04:36And we're going to keep growing in this fundamental that we're seeing working.
04:40So we're doing a lot of travel retail.
04:42Okay.
04:43We're opening JFK, we're opening both Paris Airport, we're opening Milano, Linate, and
04:48Caselle in Italy.
04:50We're doing flagship in the U.S.
04:52We're doing some new Middle East, two new in Jeddah.
04:56Last year we did Bahrain and Beirut.
04:59So we're going to keep pushing in all different aspects.
05:02A few new Italy cafes, probably, that we cannot confirm.
05:05Okay.
05:06But we're excited.
05:06We're rolling.
05:07People like our brand.
05:08People like our food, and we need to keep pushing.
05:10We can't take advantage of that in Hong Kong.
05:12When do I get to see you guys at Hong Kong airports, as you mentioned, Trapp?
05:16Is that something you're studying?
05:17We're studying.
05:18First of all, I love Hong Kong.
05:19Okay.
05:19I would love to have an excuse to come here much more often.
05:23Hong Kong is a difficult market for us because of real estate.
05:26We usually enter the market with a big flagship.
05:29Okay.
05:29And finding...
05:30Or the cost of real estate.
05:31The cost of real estate, but also the availability.
05:33It's very difficult to find a prime 30,000 square feet of real estate in Hong Kong where
05:39to put an Italian food flagship store, right?
05:41Right, right, right.
05:42So we're looking at all our options.
05:44Eventually, I hope, we're going to get here.
05:47But we're lucky.
05:48We have many markets in which we can expand, and we can't wait to find the right opportunities.
05:53What about mainland China?
05:55That's where it's starting.
05:56I'm going to Shanghai tomorrow.
05:58Okay.
05:59Which I'm a big fan of.
06:01I would love to open in Shanghai.
06:03We're studying the market.
06:04We believe we're very close to be able, eventually, to announce our possibilities there.
06:09The reason why I really like Shanghai is because it's probably an easier way to truly understand
06:14mainland Chinese market, which is a geonormous market, rather than Hong Kong, that we both
06:18know is more international.
06:20The number of products that you can bring, it's much larger.
06:23Yeah.
06:23So it's kind of a different market.
06:24And we can import, I believe, pineapples for free here.
06:27What do you, so what's your take on pineapples and pizza?
06:30My take on disrupting Italian food tradition is that everybody can do whatever they want,
06:37as long as they know that their recipe is not Italian.
06:40Okay.
06:40Let's just not call it that, right?
06:42Let's just not call it Italian pizza.
06:43It's fine.
06:43All right.
06:44Fantastic.
06:44Fantastic.
06:44Fantastic.
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