The turnover of the number two Italian wine player, Caviro, is 330 million euros

Record numbers in 2018 for the giant Caviro, the absolute number two player in Italian wine, has approved its 2018 budget during their recent meeting in Faenza. The numbers included turnover that grew to 330 million euros (+4.6%), of which 71% was related to wine (74% thanks to exports), 5 million euros in profits and the gross operating profit (Ebitda) was 21 millions euros. Growth was primarily due to the consolidation of exports, specifically in the UK, Germany, the United States, Japan and Russia. “Our export target for 2019 is 10%, which we intend to achieve primarily on the Anglo-Saxon markets (UK and USA) and in the Far East (China, Japan, Korea)”, said the general manager of Caviro, SimonPietro Felice. These first few months of the year have demonstrated to us that this goal is definitely within our reach because, up to now, the increase we have recorded in exports is already around 10%”.
“We have closed a very positive year in numbers”, commented the president Carlo Dalmonte. And, we needed it, mostly to revive our assets following last year’s very complicated transaction created by the “Portugal Affair”, which was a scam we were involved in over 20 years ago that damaged us on several levels and which, in 2017, obliged us to make a payment of 7.4 million euros. Therefore, from the point of view of accounting, we are completely satisfied, even though we are aware that we have not reached the quotations we would have liked for bulk wine sales”.

On the whole, when we take a look at the 2019 market, it does not seem to be as dynamic as 2018 was, at least so far, since even though there was an abundant harvest, it has been registering dropping prices. “This situation has generated heavy competition on prices and the necessity for Caviro to revise some prices to meet a market that requires more promotion”, underlined the director general Felice. Today, what we are looking at is a market that has higher volumes but lower average prices, compared to 2018”.

One of Caviro’s most significant numbers in 2018 was its substantial growth in investments, which came close to its record of 26 million euros. “Considering the investment point of view, 2018 was a rather intense year”, the president Dalmonte continued, “and some of our most important projects that have been completed include the new bottling line at the Forlì plant, the new autoclaves at the Savignano sul Panaro plant, the renovated Fumane winery of the subsidiary Cesari and, finally, the new biomethane production plant in Faenza that we are going to inaugurate at the beginning of June. Furthermore, obviously, we will launch the Leonardo da Vinci project that is being developed this year on the occasion of the five hundredth anniversary of Leonardo’s death”.

“Leonardo is not just an investment in the brand but more specifically, it is a project that has involved creating two museums, the publication of a book and, most importantly, consolidating a wine making method: the Leonardo Method”, SimonPietro Felice emphasized once again. “The entire project was formulated and carried out starting from the techniques that Leonardo developed working in the vineyard. Meticulously following the Leonardo Method, we have presented five lines of wines dedicated to the main Italian wine productions”.

Obviously, therefore, included in the projects to strengthen the brands of the Caviro group, there is also the relaunch of Tavernello as well as introducing new products on the market.