In the furthest region in the North East of Italy, between the
Adriatic Sea and the Alps, the province of Udine is situated.
Contact reports on the two brothers Maurizio and Flavio who live in
the region of Friuli Venezia Giula, to tell the story of their
retail business which is a family concern. Back in the 1950's,
their grandfather began a small grocer's store. The business was
taken over by the parents of the two brothers which by then was a
store with a retail selling area of 180m2. This continued until an
earthquake abruptly ended the livelihood of the family. They
decided to re-build their store and at the same time to expand,
creating a supermarket of 399m2 which was opened by the two
brothers. Not long after the opening, the store was expanded yet
again to 550m2. Flavio Forte shared their SPAR history with us
during a short interview.
How did you both become a SPAR
retailer?
Flavio Forte (47) answered this question by saying that in addition
to having entrepreneurial spirit in their blood as well as 30 years
personal experience as retailers, "SPAR was very understanding
about our desire to grow our business and provided us with support,
training and inspiration."
Several years ago an opportunity arose whereby it was
possible to open a supermarket with a retail selling area
of 800m2 in a shopping centre in Buja, close to Udine. The brothers
made the decision to relocate their business to this new site and
then expanded the supermarket further to 1,000m2,
operating it as a EUROSPAR supermarket. In November 2009, a
second EUROSPAR supermarket was opened in Majano which has a retail
selling area of 1,500m2.
Can you describe your customers?
"We have a very strong base of loyal customers from the
region, comprising both families and working people. Through the
long history of trading in our family, our customers have developed
a lot of trust in us which is the basis for the relationship which
we have with them and which creates a bond between us and
them."
Does the location affect shopping trends?
The two EUROSPAR supermarkets are located in shopping centres in
Buja and Majano which are easily accessible via main roads. There
is a steady flow of customers in the supermarkets, both in the
summer and in the winter.
Do you have specialty departments in your stores?
"The most specialist departments in our supermarkets are
our fresh departments. We have expanded and upgraded these
departments so that we can separate our offer from that of our
competitors. We also retain the loyalty of many of our regular
customers focusing on our fresh offer. We have achieved this
through improving both the quality and the range, without losing
the focus we had on service and friendliness. In our extraordinary
delicatessen, we sell amongst other things our own processed meat
products and fresh meat from the cattle farms in the region.
In addition we offer fried fish and
vegetable meals as well as ready to eat hot fish and meat dishes.
We place a special emphasis on the needs of sustainability. We have
an environmentally friendly and energy saving building. We have
expanded our range of loose items. We sell, for example, assorted
types of grain, nuts, pet food, wine, dried fruit and candy this
way. The intention behind this new style of retail offer is that
customers can buy the exact quantity of a product which they
require whilst reducing the quantity of packaging materials being
used to supply this product.
Please share the shopping
pattern of your customers with us.
The buying patterns of our customers are not easy to identify,
encompassing a broad range of products, although there has been a
noticeable rise in the demand for private label products. We have
noticed an increase in the trend to purchase locally sourced
product as well. This has contributed to the success of our organic
range and our sales of freshly prepared foods. Consumers want to
know from where their product is sourced and value the high quality
of merchandise which we provide from the region. The expansion of
the private label products available in DESPAR is contributing to
the loyalty level and confidence in private label.
How would you describe
yourself as a manager?
I would define myself as a businessoriented entrepreneur, someone
who strives for quality in business, for the sale and turnover
increase, which is very important, but who is also careful to
monitor expenses and solve a variety of problems on a daily basis.
I try to have an allround view of my company. We are a business
which is growing and providing new employment opportunities. For
the new EUROSPAR in Majano, we recruited 28 new company
employees.
We always like to ask our
local champion to describe a great day in their career as a
SPAR-retailer.
Considering the background of the development of the Forte
family in the retail sector, their own description of their
entrepreneurship and the influence they have brought to the areas
of fresh food preparation and environment, it was no surprise when
Flavio Forte answered: "Surely a fantastic day, I would even say a
magical day, is the day a supermarket is opened: in those moments
there is something which comes to life!"