OSCAR FARINETTI, OWNER OF EATALY, THE NEW SUPERMARKET FOR GOURMETS, TALKS TO WINENEWS: “QUALITY WINE AND FOOD PRODUCTS ARE MY MISSION… AFTER TURIN, GENOA, THEN 8 OTHER ITALIAN CITIES AND NEW YORK”. RAPPORT GOOD BETWEEN THE THREE PARTNERS (COOP)

Oscar Farinetti, ex-owner of Unieuro (the chain store specialized in electronics, with earnings of 800 million euro, and sold to the English group Dixon’s in 2003), and today at the head of Eataly, the eno-gastronomic center where one can acquire, taste, and study high quality foods and wines, recently explained to WineNews that, “Wine & food is a new mission.
Thus, after Turin, we will open in Genoa (at the Stazione Marittima, the best spot in the Ligurian city), and then in eight other Italian cities (Milan and Verona in the north; Bologna, Florence and Rome in the center; Naples, Bari and Palermo in the south). And we will embark on our first location abroad in New York in the Rockefeller Center (the accord has already been made)”.

The entrepreneur from the Piedmont region, who has an important partnership with Coop Liguria, Nova Coop, Coop Adriatico, and a consulting base with Slow Food Italia, thus has some interesting projects to develop, now guaranteed by the success that Eataly is having in Turin: “it is going very well… there are many “wine & food” enthusiasts who use it for all three of its functions: buy, eat, study”.

But the future of Eataly is founded on all of its members: “the relationship between the three cooperatives (which hold 40% of share capital) is excellent; no problem with strategies given that the three presidents of Coop Liguria, Nova Coop, Coop Adriatica are with me on the board of directors; the Coop also give a big hand with tactics and management of the Turin center. The director, Marco Liera, is from the Coop and is able to combine his excellent managerial skills with our love, and that of Slow Food, for quality eno-gastronomic goods at “sustainable prices”, and with a particular attention to the didactics of food”.