According to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group, in 2013 Veronesi was the only Italian group worthy of sharing the podium with other large-scale consumer businesses celebrating the highest levels of growth. Alongside global companies such as Henkel and Mondelez, the Veronesi group received the golden palm for sales, recording 6% growth during what can only be described as difficult times for the market. The best news is that the company, who is number one in Europe in the birdfeed sector and fourth in the Italian food industry after Ferrero and Barilla, has no intention to rest on its laurels. With a strong balance sheet of no less than 2.85 billion euros and a solid financial position, thanks to a consistent reduction in debt, Veronesi is one of the few companies today who can face the future with great optimism. Nor is it shy about its ability to shoulder new and increasingly ambitious acquisitions: “We hope to conclude a very important deal here in Italy before the end of the year” reveals Bruno Veronesi, patron of the group. “And furthermore, if we receive the assurances that we are asking for, we will finalise a deal to buy a company based in Serbia, which could prove to be of high strategic importance to us”. Why are you so interested in Serbia? Because it could prove the ideal vantage point from which to enter the Russian market, which has, so far, been blocked by customs regulations. By going into production directly in Serbia we would finally be in a position to expand into Russia, where the prospect for growth is considerable. Currently 15% of your turnover comes from foreign business, what are your future targets? Ideally we would want this to reach 30% and our constant increase in turnover is comforting. Last year, for example, we were at over 370 million euros and this year we will surpass 400 million. Which markets are of greatest interest to you? In addition to Russia, the German market is of paramount importance to us, and remains one of our most important end markets. To this end we have invested heavily in new technologies that allow us to satisfy very specific requirements. For example, in Germany they want a longer shelf-life, stronger packaging and standardised weights. We have adapted to meet these demands. What news can we expect in 2014? We will be unveiling the new “big size” hamburger, weighing 170 grams. We hope to replicate the success we had with our giant pork chop, which has the advantage of a large portion size but with a low fat content. In order to launch the new ‘big size’ hamburger we have further invested in technology and equipped ourselves with new machinery that allows us to produce a burger of perfect consistency, despite its large size.