Roncadin's frozen pizzas produced in Chicago: 190 million turnover expected

Roncadin, the Italian big name in frozen pizzas that in 2023 closed its accounts withrevenues of 175 million, inaugurates - in conjunction with the Plma trade fair, the main North American event dedicated to the private label world - its new plant in the USA, in Chicago. The production line will allow the Friulian group to better serve a strategic market such as the North American one, and in the company's forecasts the expected turnover for 2025 will be 78 million dollars (about 73.8 million euros), to reach 200 million dollars (over 189 million euros) when fully operational.

It is a 7,000 square metre production hub that will employ 100 people where the first production line installed will be able to churn out up to 30 million frozen pizzas per year, destined for a market worth $6 billion.

The new plant in Chicago, the result of a investment of 30 million euros, is a very important step for the growth of Roncadin, the realisation of a project on which we have been working hard for years and that will open up new and great opportunities for us and also for the supply chain and the Made in Italy linked to the production of frozen pizza," says CEO Dario Roncadin. Producing directly in the USA for us means being able to better serve a strategic market, where we entered in 2013 by importing the pizzas produced in Meduno. Throughout North America (USA and Canada) our specialities were immediately highly appreciated, becoming recognised for their authentically Italian characteristics: 68% are destined for local distributor brands, while the Roncadin brand accounts for 32% of sales".

In addition we will free up production capacity at our plant in Meduno, which is currently almost at the limit: "We will also be able to better serve the Italian and European markets," continues the CEO. "Not having to transport products from Italy to the US also means significant savings in pollutant emissions, and this for a B Corp like Roncadin is an important issue. Finally, having a plant in Chicago will be an opportunity for all the group's employees, who will be able to participate in exchange programmes and gain experience in the US if they wish. We are also thinking of organising initiatives involving the children of our employees'.

An independent R&D department operates in Chicago and the company management is entrusted to Alessio Lucchese, CEO of Roncadin Inc: from Friuli, he moved to the US with his family in 2013 to follow the project from the beginning and to elaborate the production development plan for the coming years: "I am extremely proud," he says, "to see how much Roncadin, in the last 10 years, has contributed to the diffusion of authentic Italian pizza in the United States. This is all thanks to a team, made up of Italian and American people, who value the diversity and richness of each individual. We can't wait to get going and show what we can do".