High-end catering

Longino & Cardenal, a Fish Market to grow into a billion-plus business

The new laboratory on the outskirts of Milan will allow some processing to improve the service provided to out-of-home operators

by Maria Teresa Manuelli

27 May 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Fish processing debut
A market of over a billion

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Eighty square metres, a laboratory that, according to Riccardo Uleri, managing director of Longino & Cardenal, "opens up very big possibilities", with less than 200,000 euro investment. The Milanese group listed on Euronext Growth Milan, specialising in the search, selection and distribution of rare and precious foods for the haute cuisine, has inaugurated in Pogliano Milanese the "Fish Market" project: a new fresh fish processing department that marks a step change in the group's strategy in the fish sector.

The debut in fish processing

Until now Longino & Cardenal had always treated fish as an important part of its assortment, but without being able to intervene directly on the raw product: no filleting, no portioning, no repackaging. "However, the wild fish that is bought from the ports arrives in packaging conditions that are unsuitable directly for sale to restaurants," explains Uleri, "it needs to be handled, repackaged, relabelled, put back into boxes with ice. The lack of a suitable structure prevented us from following the wild fish market directly from the harbour and forced us to turn to intermediaries who cost us a couple of days' freshness and some brokerage'.

The new laboratory - equipped with lines for packing, filleting, freezing and vacuum packing - solves both problems. Longino will now be able to buy directly from ports in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic, receive the fish in large crates and recondition it in three- or five-kilo crates, or in individual pieces depending on the variety, before distributing it to the catering trade.

A market of over a billion

The positioning is no coincidence. According to estimates drawn up on the basis of Fipe data on eating out and Ismea/Eunofa surveys on fish consumption, the b2b market for fresh fish destined for catering in Italia is worth between 1 and 1.5 billion euro annually.

The offer Longino focuses on is that of wild caught fish, which for breadth of range has no comparison with farmed fish.

For the future, Uleri does not rule out the need to expand space: the current 80 m2 workshop could become cramped if volumes grow. In the meantime, the group is evaluating the construction of a new factory on land already purchased in Pogliano Milanese, less than a kilometre from the current site. The need also stems from logistical reasons: today Longino operates on two separate locations - one for fresh goods, one for dry and frozen goods - with obvious process inefficiencies. "Work could start in the next one or two years," says Uleri, pointing out that planning is still in progress. The new site will be built from scratch, in a greenfield logic.

The new investment comes at a time when the group (which includes Hong Kong, Dubai and subsidiaries) is working on relaunching revenues. In 2025, consolidated revenues stood at EUR 35.3 million, down from EUR 36.9 million in 2024; the Italian parent company alone recorded revenues of EUR 27.4 million, compared to EUR 28.4 million the previous year. On the operating profitability front, the consolidated contribution margin increased to EUR 9.1 million from EUR 8.9 million in 2024. The group's consolidated net result closed with a loss of EUR 0.7 million; that of the Italian parent company showed a larger red, amounting to EUR 3.9 million. Figures that make the 'Fish Market' project - contained in the investment and potentially with a high impact on fish sales - an all the more relevant move in view of the strengthening of profitability that management has set as its goal.