Pietro Di Leo, Ceo of the company that bears his name, was invited to speak in front of the Italian parliament, in the Chamber of Deputies, in a meeting whose title was ‘Palm oil: critical issues and alternatives’. The increase of sales recorded between 2014 and 2016 by the line of biscuits without palm oil produced by ‘Di Leo Pietro’ Company was 156%. Di Leo Pietro is located in Matera, where the Company was born in 1860, and is engaged in the manufacture of bakery products. It recently entered 'Elite' programme realised by Italian Stock Exchange.
This impetuous growth began in mid-2014, when the company, the first one in Italy, began reporting the absence of palm oil on the packs of its biscuits, which on the other hand have been produced exclusively with corn oil since 1990.
These biscuits in two years have recorded triple-digit growth: total sales in 2016 - year in which the path of elimination of palm oil from all references ended - recorded 26 % growth compared to 2015, with turnover that reached almost 19 million Euros, allowing Di Leo to achieve leadership in the health-whole segment in the South of the Country.
Pietro Di Leo said: ‘The decision to eliminate palm oil from our products and use more and more traditional ingredients, as well as genuine local raw materials, is rewarding us beyond the most optimistic forecasts. Today we are the fourth brand in South Italy. An ever-increasing share of turnover comes from the sale of products sensitive to our consumers’ nutritional needs as well as respect for the environment. This allows us to understand that we are going in the right direction’.
Di Leo Pietro joint-stock company, born in 1860 in Altamura, boasts manufacturing facilities of about 18,000 square metres (out of a total of 100,000 square metres) in Matera. It produces and markets a wide range of bakery products, realised with the 'wire cutting' technique: traditional biscuits, shortbread either characterized by low caloric content or organic with important nutritional properties, low fat content and no added sugars. Di Leo Pietro, fourth producer of biscuits in Nielsen 4th area and second in Puglia and Basilicata, with turnover of almost 19 million Euros in 2016 and 40 employees, achieved ISO 22000 - ISO 14001 - IFS certification, which attest to the quality of the organisation. Moreover, Di Leo Pietro was also one of the first companies in South Italy that obtained BRC Global Standard Food, prestigious English certification of quality, specific for the domain of food, in ‘A’ category, the highest attainable recognition.
