Five years ago Fabrizio Canal created Food Accademia; a fine food, wines & spirits distributor bringing high quality and authentic Italian produce to the duty free and travel retail channel.

 

“At the beginning of this year we were filled with optimism and we had a very good sales plan in place with our retail partners,” Canal told TRBusiness. Alas, the pandemic meant that plans have been scuppered, but Canal insists that with travel beginning to open up again, ‘we must look ahead and we must be prepared’.

 

The company’s participation in the upcoming TRMarketplace digital meeting and conference event, will play a fundamental role in these preparations to restart business in travel retail locations.

 

“TRMarketplace provides us with an extremely cost-effective mechanism for showcasing our variety of Italian brands globally,” he said.

 

“We know that consumers will not be purchasing in the same way as before. We do believe their priorities will be different.

 

 

“I truly believe that during this period of lockdown families around the world have rediscovered their kitchens; cooking from scratch rather than weekly-prepared meals; eating together and enjoying meal times much more.”

 

Canal explains that consumers have discovered new recipes and new ideas and a new love for fine foods and cooking. He also appreciates that retailers will need the company’s close cooperation and support wherever possible. “We are already looking at new merchandising units which are sustainable, easy to clean and which will enable easy self selection of products,” said Canal.

 

“We are constantly looking at ways to adapt the business…we are looking at developing an ecommerce item that will enable consumers to purchase ingredients in order to make classic Italian dishes, but with our style; thinking out of the box. It will be interesting to discover.”