Italy: Alce Nero continues to increase sales

The Alce Nero group closed their business year 2014 with €54.5 million, an increase of 8% on 2013. This growth was particularly driven by the excellent performance of the Alce Nero brand with sales worth €36.4 million, a plus of 26% on the previous year. The brand now represents 67% of the group's global turnover with the forecast that it will reach 80% in 2015.

On the domestic market, sales for the Alce Nero brand increased by 34% and a decline was reported for foreign markets (-3.6%), particularly due to the negative performance of the Japanese market. Sales in Italy were increased in large supermarket chains (+36%) and in traditional channels  dedicated to organics (+25.4%). The new line for children up to three years – Alce Nero Baby – performed particularly well, and tomato sauce, pulp and puree, palm oil free products, as well as compotes, honey and cooked vegetables did well too. Massimo Monti (picture), CEO of the company, explained that they were very pleased with the results and aimed to achieve a further increase of at least 12% for the brand, even though the first signs for 2015 revealed that it might be much higher.

Alce Nero has been applying the principles of organic farming for more than 30 years. Pasta is made using hard wheat grown in six Italian regions, and tomatoes for purees and sauces are grown in the Po River valley. Pears and peaches for juices are from Emilia-Romagna and apricots come from Basilicata, for example. The Italian Alce Nero team shares their values with fair trade producers in Costa Rica, Brazil, Nicaragua, Peru and India. This partnership has formed the basis for the Alce Nero line of organic and fair trade products, which includes coffee, cane sugar, cocoa, chocolates and more. More information is available here.