With its main markets being Italy, the UK and the US, its main focus is the out-of-home market, in particular fine and casual dining restaurants, top hotels and delicatessens.
Ferrarelle SpA president and CEO Carlo Pontecorvo talks about the history of the company and the challenges it faces in modern business.
How does an independent business with such heritage operate in today’s competitive and multinational dominated world? And what are the reasons for Ferrarelle’s sustained success?
Carlo Pontecorvo: The main reasons are competitiveness applied to all the levels in which we operate: an efficient working organisation, a high quality production system, and a wide and efficient communication system. And lastly, not being a multinational company, we can develop relationships and respond quickly.
Ferrarelle was traditionally sold in glass, but is now also available in PET. What are your most successful formats, and do changes in those over the years reflect changes in consumer behaviour?
Pontecorvo: At 20% of its sales, Ferrarelle is one of the few brands with a high percentage of bottled water in glass. In PET, our best selling bottle – especially in supermarkets – is the 1.5-litre. Consumers and the market have provoked the move towards PET, but its use has led to big debates about its environmental impact.
Nevertheless, while glass bottles can be recycled 100%, PET can also be almost completely recycled, but only if consumers follow those ‘green’ rules that we are so keen to communicate.
The bottled water market is changing all the time. Did the recent ‘anti-bottled water’ campaign led by the Co-op supermarket chain come as a surprise, and how did you counter it?
Pontecorvo: The Co-op initiatives educate consumers to the various possibilities of consumption and to environmental sustainability, which we consider correct, as we support the same principles, and for which reason we have a good relationship with them. Nevertheless, we don’t agree with or appreciate the campaign led by the public water companies, which we consider to be unjust and not clear advice for consumers. The comparison between bottled or public water cannot be made, as these are two different products each with their own peculiarities – one being a pure bottled source water and the other not. The campaign therefore can only provoke greater misunderstanding among consumers.
In light of changes in the market and new pressures, how important is the Italian Mineral Water Trade Association, Mineracqua?
Pontecorvo: Mineracqua is the main mineral water association, which is particularly important for our company since it helps us in educating our consumers, and is the main voice defending our market.
Ferrarelle is a carbon neutral company. What were the main challenges you needed to overcome to achieve this and are there other environmental sustainability challenges still remaining?
Pontecorvo: Ferrarelle is very aware of it environmental impact. Our product itself comes directly and physically from nature, so logically we’re devoted to the environment. For example, thanks to the photovoltaic power plant we installed in Riardo in 2008 – the biggest in the whole central-southern Italy – we now employ only alternative and renewable energies.
We’re also very proud of Ferrarelle’s involvement in the new ‘Parco Sorgenti di Riardo’ project inaugurated just two months ago, which is restoring 145 hectares of historic Italian landscape thanks to the essential collaboration of FAI (Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano) – the Italian main environment fund that protects the landscape and the historical and artistic heritage of Italy. This is the first time FAI has partnered with a private company.
This area is home to Ferrarelle’s source and features several historic and beautiful sights such as Masseria Mozzi, the ruins of the Taverna Saliscendi and next to them the beautiful historical centre of Riardo, dominated by its great medieval castle.
Ferrarelle has a long history. Founded in 1893 in Riardo in the province of Caserta, it was briefly owned by Danone in the late 1980s before returning to independent ownership in 1991 when the LGR Holdings created Italaquae Ferrarelle SpA.
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