Here at our interview box in the Italian Pavilion at Summer Fancy Food we were visited by an embodiment of the American dream: Franco Denari, Country Manager Longino & Cardenal USA. A transversal entrepreneur with many successes behind him, not the least of which is in the field of food – already featured in the collector’s issue of our magazine that you can find here at the Fair – he tells us why the United States is the best market in which to launch new business projects.
What is the secret to achieving the American dream here in the United States? What is your secret?
My secret is simple: never give up. I am a big fan of the United States, it is a country that recognizes merit, so I am very attached to that aspect. The great thing is that you can come to the United States, have an idea, have an idea of yourself and be able to realize it. And if you realize it, you don’t have anybody to show envy, in fact, people will pat you on the back and say bravo, go ahead, become even more than what you have done so far.
In spite of whatever catastrophist narrative there is around the United States, in the last six months the data continues to show increasing growth, especially in food. Is this a direct consequence of tariffs, in a good way-we are afraid of tariffs, so we import as much as we can before they increase, or is it exactly the opposite, despite the tariffs we want good stuff, we want Made in Italy products?
In my opinion, both aspects are valid. I continue to talk a lot with all the Italian entrepreneurs who are related to the food industry, and in fact the United States is still the best platform on which to develop this type of industry that is culturally recognized, so it is known that what we do is of top quality. Generally these are the unique moments when you can make investments and be successful. There are historical moments that significantly characterize what you can do in the next 5-7 years, it happened with the financial crisis in 2008, it happened in the Covid moment and it is happening now. Now maybe what adds up compared to a traditional crisis is that the consumer, in this climate of uncertainty, is trying to figure out how and where to spend money, however, I am sure that those who hold at this time, those who move to the United States at this time and make investments, with head of course, with focused plans, will have the next 5-7 years of extreme success.
Can you give us some investment tidbits?
First of all, it is very easy here to be able to distribute product. Many of the companies that are at Fancy Food today are in fact looking for distributors, so the important thing is to present yourself clearly with a clear idea of the product you want to sell or the service. The other aspect is that at the contractual level. At this time when everyone knows there is uncertainty, even U.S. partners, you can negotiate deals that you generally cannot close at other times in history. I give concrete examples for business people, for entrepreneurs. You want to build a manufacturing site? You pretty much have incentives in every state in the United States of America and they support you, with the bureaucracy being zero, almost to a minimum. Do you want to rent a location to do showrooms, open a restaurant, open a business? If you talk to a traditional landlord today, if symbolically he was asking you for x squared before, if you propose y to him today because x right now you don’t have it, you close the deal, which generally doesn’t happen. Three, you can also find staff to work, despite everything that’s going on, the visas, the closure, everything continues.
What I recommend is not to start out completely clueless, so a minimum of analysis, a minimum of a plan, a minimum of a clear idea, what is the ultimate goal as a business and entrepreneur, what do you want to accomplish in the United States and then, listen.
There are over 400 Italian brands here, some very structured and well-known, others very small. What mistakes are being made and what opportunities are there for even the smallest brands today to get to America?
Meanwhile, I’m very proud when you go around Fancy Food and still see uniquenesses with a small booth that have made the effort to come. In my opinion-and I’ve been following these companies for almost 20 years-the most common mistake is to think that you can manage everything from Italy, that’s the most common mistake. Going very practical: I have an Italian sales manager and he becomes my single point of contact responsible for the United States who maybe comes here five days a year. How can you, in this way, understand the American market? Every state has logics, has a certain way of working and also a different cultural approach. So I invite everyone to come to the United States, take some time, travel even outside the main cities, trivially New York is different from Chicago, as consumption, as habits and interface with the territory.
Then I tell the last thing I care about the food aspect, two secrets I’ve learned over these 20 years.
The first: if you look at the map of the United States of America and pull a vertical holding Chicago in, 80 percent of food consumption is on this coast, and so an extreme focus on the east coast is critical to developing business.
Second, I have also lived outside of New York, I have been 3 years in Iowa and not only that, the average price of an Italian food product is the same in both New York and Des Moines, Iowa. What does this mean? That while if I live and move to live in Des Moines, the apartment I rent probably costs me one-tenth of what I’m paying right now in New York, the price of food is exactly the same.
You have to understand, on a cultural level, that for Americans the Italian product is still a high-end luxury product, and then that those who do distribution on this country have understood our uniqueness and so they position you high, they never position you low. It’s not like you go to Nashville and find the Italian product a tenth of what is sold in Manhattan in New York, it’s sold at the exact same price. Let’s focus on that and do the development because it’s a unique opportunity.