Francesco Pugliese, managing director of Conad, has been elected as president of Core, the strategic alliance consisting of Colruyt (Belgium), Conad, Coop (Switzerland) and Rewe Group (Germany). In 2013 the four groups registered a turnover of around 90 billion euros – approximately 6.7% of the whole European market – with a network of 20 thousand points of sale in 18 European countries. The board of directors consists of Frans Colruyt and Christophe Dehandschutter (Colruyt), Joos Sutter and Philipp Wyss (Coop Suisse), Alain Caparros and Manfred Esser (Rewe Group) and Francesco Avanzini (Conad). Core’s headquarters are in Brussels and its legal form is that of a cooperative Belgian society.
Francesco Pugliese was born in Taranto in 1959 and after a few years spent gaining experience in different positions in Milan, he joined Barilla. In the Parma based company he developed and consolidated his own professional experience by taking on tasks of ever increasing responsibility, until being appointed director general for Europe in 2000. In 2002 he transferred to Gruppo Yomo, with the joint roles of managing director and director general. He joined Conad in 2004 with the role of director general and in the years he spent there he developed the group’s market share, taking it to 11.4%. In June 2014 he was appointed managing director, whilst also maintaining his role as director general.