Nicola Farinetti talks about Eataly's success in London's Liverpool Street

Since it opened in April 2021, more than three million guests have visited Eataly in London’s Liverpool Street. We meet the chief executive to discover the brand’s global presence

Tell us a bit about the Eataly brand

My father, Oscar Farinetti first developed the concept for Eataly in 2002, and his aim was to make high-quality Italian food available to everyone, both at fair prices and in an environment where people can eat, shop, and learn. He opened the first Eataly store in Torino in 2007 and we have since grown in Italy and around the world.

What has been your experience of opening in London?

We wanted to open in a central location where Londoners both live and work. People can visit us to eat in our restaurants, shop in our market and learn in our beautiful cookery school that looks out onto Liverpool Street station.

The main hurdle, which we didn’t anticipate, was opening during a pandemic. Usually, footfall in the city is high during the week with city workers and with tourists at the weekend, but just as we opened we saw a slower pace during the week and an increase in footfall over the weekend with our London customers. Despite this, we’ve seen more than three million guests visit our store and have sold an astounding number of items. We’ve just opened our most recent restaurant, Terra, that has helped build our portfolio of restaurants and opportunities here in London.

 

“All fresh produce you will find in store has been made on site, every day”

Three million guests must eat a lot of pasta

In London, we have more than 6,000 products from Italy, and we also work with an extensive number of local UK producers. All fresh produce in-store has been made on-site, every day – from the pastries and gelato found in Café Illy to our cheeses made fresh in our mozzarella lab, as well as fresh bread, pasta range and pizzas.

Our market represents 30% of our revenue in London and is continuing to grow every day. Over the last year, we have sold an astounding number of items throughout the store, including 100,000 loaves of focaccia, 30,000 pieces of burrata and over 15,000 rustic breads. During our first Christmas, we sold more than 22,000 panettone, and we hope to beat that this year!

How did Brexit impact the UK launch?

Fortunately, we’re used to opening stores internationally and have been planning this opening for quite some time. As we do with all our stores, we have kept the crucial relevant external factors in mind when it has come to planning.

We have had a staggering number of incredible suppliers both in the UK and Italy who are used to complex import and export rules. We have great, long-established relationships with suppliers around the world, and have undertaken the supply of every product in our London store in the full confidence that it won’t be affected in any way and of course meets the quality standard of Eataly.

What are your plans for Eataly?

We continue to collaborate with exciting brands across the store, to give customers more opportunities and menu choices. Currently, we have a pop-up with S.Pellegrino on the ground floor in the Central Bar, as well as our on-going partnership with Aperol Spritzeria on our Al Fresco terrace.

Our winery offers customers more than 2,000 types of Italian wine, which is a key focus for our London client base and which we want to continue to grow by curating a series of events, such as wine festivals and masterclasses with our Eataly teams and other brands. In autumn we will be focusing on wine and truffles with a special wine and truffle dinner, as well as a rare fresh truffle auction in store.