Taste of home
Offering convenience, nutrition, great taste and value-for-money, the Italian food category is a key sector to get right in-store
Print10 July 2015
It has long been taken as fact that Italian is one of the most popular national cuisines around the world. From Dublin to Dubai, Manila to Memphis, pizza and pasta feeds families every day. As well as the practical simplicity of Italian food, there is an associated meaning with the cuisine; the sights and smells that come with it inspire notions of comfort and family that make every meal feel like a special occasion. With some notable leading brands in the sector, with a wide range of sauces and new products, stocking up on the latest family favourites will make your shelves a popular stop for any occasion.
In Ireland, the Italian category is significant in size. Sales figures published by Nielsen reveal that within the foreign food category, worth €116m in total, Italian represents 48% of the market at €56m. €35m of that is made up of Italian wet cooking sauces, while pasta totals €21m. In that category, Dolmio is the leading brand.
Dolmio day
Since the 1980s, Dolmio has been innovating in the market with its range of sauces and meal kits, regularly developing new and exciting product ranges that suit all tastes. This summer Dolmio is launching its new Bolognese and Lasagne jar range which aims to appeal to an even more broad range of consumers with five new flavours of Bolognese sauce, each with its own specific benefits and characteristics.
- Original: The classic Bolognese sauce known and loved by consumers for as long as they can remember. Suitable for everyone in the family, a consumer will see this as the right choice for any occasion.
- Low Fat: With less fat than the other jars in the range, this sauce option has the appeal for consumers who are calorie conscious and always have one eye on their health and wellbeing.
- Chunky: This sauce adds even more texture and flavour to a Bolognese with bigger chunks and is suited to more special occasions or ‘adult’ mealtimes.
- Smooth: At the opposite end of the spectrum, smooth sauce is for family mealtimes with picky eaters. “No bits” means parents can be sure the kids won’t turn their nose up at it.
- Intense: Like the Chunky sauce, Intense Bolognese sauce has the added flavour of sun-dried tomatoes that make it perfect for adult mealtimes.
Also part of the new range launching this summer is an improved range of Dolmio’s Lasagne jars. Offering convenience doubled with ease of preparation, Dolmio’s Lasagne Sauce features Original and Low Fat options as well as Chunky Tomato for the more grown-up occasions.
A major trend in food currently is the notion for consumers that a product will be “the right range for me”, and Dolmio’s new five sauces range offers this choice and personality. Meanwhile, for retailers looking for shallower ranges, Dolmio’s new range is ideal and makes shopping easier with its wall of jars easy to recognise.
Italian meal kits
Another area Dolmio brings innovation to the market is with its Italian Meal Kits, with which the company says it is developing an entirely new market. Once again combining the satisfaction of a homemade meal with the convenience of ready-made products, Dolmio is bringing a new range of Oven Bake Meal Kits to market in addition to its best-selling Lasagne Meal Kit range. They aim to offer variety and inspiration to prevent mealtimes from becoming boring, repetitive affairs.
Primo pasta from historic Italian maker
Barilla’s Penne pasta offers an alternative to spaghetti for dinner
Barilla’s Arrabbiata sauce is made from 100% Italian tomatoes
Barilla’s Basil Sauce is simple, with few ingredients, like Italian food should be
The other main element of any Italian dish is the pasta. It comes in all shapes and sizes, and suits any occasion – a celebration, a quick snack or something to feed the kids on a busy weeknight, and one pasta brand offers everything consumers might need, no matter what is on the table.
Barilla is the largest Italian food products group and also the best-selling brand of pasta both in Italy and around the world. It is a clear leader in the Italian pasta market with a massive 35% market share. Barilla is also the number one pasta in Western Europe, holding on to a 21.4% value share.
Barilla is a premium dried pasta offering a texture and taste profile to an increasingly discerning consumer base.
The key to Barilla pasta is the quality throughout the entire manufacturing process from sourcing raw materials, custom production processes and machinery and premium packaging which delivers a consistent message of quality to the consumer.
Barilla has a long, storied history that dates back to the 19th century, when Pietro Barilla Sr (1845 – 1912) established his first shop after a long apprenticeship in bread and pasta making, in an area known as Po Valley in the north of the country. After 1910, the company began its expansion towards the global company it would become by building a bread and pasta factory with 80 employees. Technological improvements in the following decades allowed Barilla to expand its operations and its reach, and after World War II the company was in a strong position and opened a new factory in Viale Veneto – later renamed Viale Barilla.
Now, more than a century after the company was founded, Barilla is a global force with worldwide presence; despite this eye on advancement, it has always retained the same charm it has had from the start and the same commitment to quality and tradition.
Barilla ranges includes different types of pasta and sauces. Together with the classic range of the Everyday Italian pasta such as Penne Rigate, Farfalle, Fusilli and Spaghetti, there is also a range of specialty pasta and sauces like Arrabiata, Basil, Tagliatelle, Lasagne and Tortellini.
Barilla comes in a variety of shapes in both long and short cuts, and offers a quick meal solution: convenient, healthy and delicious pasta that is perfect for every meal and every taste.
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