Italy’s Barilla, while expanding its core pasta business, is maintaining its slow but steady diversification into other areas of the food industry. It is entering the ice cream arena with the estimated Lit100bn acquisition of compatriot Gelati Sanson. This follows its first major diversification from past with the Lit574bn purchase of Swedish cracker group Wasa in 1999.
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Industry analysts said the deal would enable Barilla to enter into a “profitable” field and offer ice cream to commercial outlets along with its products that include Mulino Bianco, Pavesi and Tre Marie biscuits and brioches. Luca Barilla, CEO of GranMilano, which is controlled by Barilla and which bought Sanson, said, “unifying the offerings of the two companies signifies an important advantage in distribution synergy geared primarily at coffee bars.”
While branching out, Barilla is still the leader in pasta sales at home and expanding abroad. Although its 2000 revenues will not be announced before March 2001, analysts expect it to be around Lit4,200bn, compared to Lit4,005bn in 2001. The Parma-based multinational has 35% of the home market and is expected to grow overseas. In 1999, a total of 25% of its sales were from international operations, with growth of 30% in Austria, 19% in Spain, 18% in France and 7% in the US, where it has its own factory and billed Lit256bn in 1999, increasing its share of the potentially huge pasta market from 9% to 10%t
Late last year, the company, which already controls one major local pasta-maker in Turkey (Filiz), opened a new €26m pasta plant in Tebe, Greece, as part of intended expansion in Southeast Europe and penetration into the Balkan states.
By Hilmi Toros, just-food.com correspondent
