Italian retail industry dominated by strong performance of Food & Beverage sector

Despite the uncertain economic climate in Italy, the retail sector will close 2019 with positive growth.

According to the preliminary figures published by Nielsen Total Store, volumes will be up 1.4% and values up 1.7% on 2018.

The Food & Beverage and Petcare segments performed well with 1.8% growth, while the home care, personal care and non-food segments remained sluggish with a 0.3% contraction. In the discount channel, fresh products saw a highly positive performance and alone accounted for 88% of the channel’s growth, reflecting a profound transformation on the part of a distribution model that was originally created with a focus on packaged products.

One of the actions being taken by supermarkets to combat competition from discount stores is a return to own-brand products in the low-price segment. In the partial figure to October 2019, this segment saw 20.5% growth, reversing the negative trend observed during 2018.