Metro Italia invests in Sardinia, will open in Olbia in 2025

Metro Italia's next wholesale shop will rise in the industrial area of Olbia, adding to those in Cagliari and Sassari The inauguration is scheduled for spring 2025 and the investment aims to intercept the greater volumes of tourism and the Ho.Re.Ca. sector that drives the island's economy. Among the novelties of the new shop are the services that will be of a higher level both to handle the greater volumes of goods and to increase productivity. The shop will also offer a higher level of service in a multi-channel perspective with the possibility for customers to choose between the physical purchase in Cash&Carry, the direct delivery service at restaurants, and the purchase of non-food products on nercato online, the marketplace that offers more than 100,000 items for gastronomy. "I am very pleased to announce the opening of Metro Italia's third shop in Sardinia, because it confirms the company's willingness to invest in an area that has always represented one of the spearheads of tourism in Italy. The Costa Smeralda and the entire north-eastern part of the island present a high potential for a company like ours, and we want to make the most of it by getting even closer to Horeca professionals,' emphasises Luca Guerrieri, Metro Italia's Sales Director. This is an important part of the investment programme in the Sardinian territory. A territory where Metro's turnover has grown by +8% in 2022-2023 compared to 2021-2022. With the opening of the new shop, Sardinia will become the region in Central and Southern Italy with the most stores after Lazio. Sardinia is strategic for Metro because of the centrality of the tourism and hospitality sector for the economy of the entire region. According to a recent survey carried out by the University of Sassari (Department of Economic and Business Sciences) and supported by Confcommercio Sardegna, work in bars and restaurants on the island recorded a +5% increase in 2023 compared to 2019, equal to +27 thousand people employed in the sector. In addition to the performance of the restaurant and hospitality economy, Sardinia is also an important region for Metro in terms of the valorisation of local products. On a national level, the company provides more than 7 thousand local products, of which about 1,200 are Sardinian. In order to ensure a wide range of regional excellence, the brand cooperates with 95 Sardinian companies and small and medium-sized enterprises, which supply numerous products such as wine, cheese, cold cuts, fruit and vegetables and fish.

The announcement of the investment in Sardinia comes just a few weeks after that of a new 9,000 square metre logistics platform that will be operational in Spring 2025 in Pontedera (Pisa). A structure entirely dedicated to food service distribution.