Ecommerce, 2 stories to support made in Italy

A former finance employee in 2016 gave birth to a made in Italy business based in London which, after only 4 years, invoices more than 10 million pounds. Today the company has Barilla as the majority shareholder and is still growing thanks to the boom in deliveryThe protagonist of the story is Alessandro Savelli, still shareholder and CEO of Pasta Evangelists.

“It was 2016 when I was in France with my father in Antibes – says the creator of the project -. My old business had gone bankrupt, I had lost everything after 8 years of work. I was downcast. My father told me it was time to find a normal job, start over, no longer from finance. But I wanted to sell fresh pasta and Italian sauces in London. There was no premium brand, I could launch it online. At that time many companies were investing in direct to consumer, therefore selling to the final consumer with ecommerce. I wanted to create a premium, high quality brand with a very fresh product. After a successful but difficult year, I wasn’t sure it was going to be a success. In fact, I had great fears. But, in the summer of 2017, after a year of testing, in one week sales increased by 50%, going from 100 portions of pasta per week to 151“.

At the time the takeaway pasta almost did not exist, it was a virgin market. Savelli was the first and only one in the UK. Now delivery is driving the business and “we think we can replicate the success of the take-away pizza like Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza“continues the entrepreneur.

Since March 2020 the company founded by Savelli has created 80 new jobs and its business model has evolved: “What they like best at the moment and that perhaps has the newest future is delivery, that is cooked pasta that you order at home with Deliveroo and Uber Eats. It arrives in 20 minutes cooked and ready to be eaten, like pizza“.

Fashion and crafts

Another interesting project linked to the made in Italy ecommerce is linked, this time, to the world of fashion: it is Mirta Wholesale. Founded in June 2019, the startup opens the doors of Italian artisan shops to consumers from all over the world, creating a direct link between producer and final consumer, without any intermediary, focusing on the creations, value and signature of each craftsman.