Economy - published on 14 August 2023
Source: Studies and Statistics Office of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso Belluno|Dolomiti
In the two provinces there are more than 40 activities (between headquarters and dependent branches), 30% of the Veneto region.
Treviso, 12 August 2023
President Mario Pozza’s comment
The cup of coffee is a ritual shared by many of us and accompanies us at different times of the day, – comments Mario Pozza, President of the Treviso-Belluno|Dolomiti Chamber of Commerce.
For some, it is associated with waking up in the morning, the mid-day break, or the end of lunch; for others, it is an opportunity to meet and socialise.
To the ‘cup of coffee’ are linked activities, which, as you will see from the data in the report prepared by our Studies Office, also closely affect our two provinces. In addition to the traditional coffee bars and shops specialising in sales, in Treviso and Belluno we can count on various manufacturing activities dedicated to coffee roasting: there are over 40 companies and branches in the provinces of Treviso and Belluno. We also know from the balance sheet data that the value of production (comparable to turnover) for roasting activities was over 170 million in 2021 for the two provinces. The Veneto production value is over 360 million, which is 7.7% of the national figure (4.8 billion). These are activities,’ the President concluded, ‘that are part of the productive excellence of our territorial agri-food system.
Coffee consumption in Italy
According to a study published at the beginning of the year by Mediobanca, Italy, with 5.2 million bags per year, ranks seventh in terms of coffee consumption: this corresponds to 95 million cups of coffee sipped per day, for an average of 1.6 cups per capita.
Looking at distribution channels, again according to this research, about half of roasted coffee sales in the country come from large-scale retail trade, 20.6% come from traditional retail, specialised shops and e-commerce, 15.4% come from hotels, restaurants, cafeterias and catering, and 9.8% from vending machines and office coffee services.
At a national level, 73.6% of the total volume of coffee sold in the large-scale retail trade is represented by ground coffee in bags, but the sale of coffee in pods and capsules is more dynamic (a segment that represents 16.2% of the total sold and for which a growth of +18.8% between 2020 and 2021 has been observed).
The coffee roasting industry: production value and number of companies
If coffee cultivation worldwide, again according to the Mediobanca study, is concentrated (with two countries, Brazil and Vietnam, covering more than half of it), the processing of this product is instead more parcelled out territorially (for obvious reasons of proximity to the consumer market): the top ten roasters meet about 35% of world demand. The main producers also include two Italian groups, one of which also operates in the province of Treviso: together, these two groups produce 4.1% of the world’s green coffee roasting.
In Italy, the coffee processing (roasting) industry is worth almost EUR 4.8 billion. The estimate refers to the production value of 490 non-consolidated Italian companies that filed their balance sheets in 2021, according to Infocamere data. 7.7% of the national value (corresponding to almost 370 million) was realised by 44 Veneto companies. This is a result that places Veneto in fifth place, by value realised in 2021, after Piedmont (almost 2 billion), Campania, Emilia-Romagna and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Slightly less than half of the Veneto’s value of production (46.9%) comes from companies in the Treviso and Belluno area: more than 172 million, considering 17 deposited balance sheets.
Looking at the data on business demographics, there were 1,054 Italian companies active in coffee processing in Italy as at 31 March 2023, plus 654 dependent branches. This adds up to 1,708 locations employing more than 10,600 people.
The Veneto locations represent 8% of the national total. There are 137 units in the region, distributed among 79 branches and 58 dependent local units, employing over 1,000 people in the area. Compared to ten years ago (March 2013), the Veneto coffee roasting industry grew by +32 units, placing it in second place in a hypothetical regional growth ranking after Campania, which saw an increase of +60 units in the decade. Compared to March 2013, the coffee roasting sector in Veneto grew both in the number of locations (+10 units, against the stability observed at a national level) and in the number of employed local units (+22).
Of the 137 units active in Veneto, 38 are located in the Marca Trevigiana, distributed among 22 offices and 16 branches, with over 360 employees in the province. Another 4 units are in the province of Belluno. The comparison with March 2013 sees, for Treviso, a slight increase in the number of business branches (+3) and a doubling of the number of dependent branches (from 7 units in March 2013 to 16 in March 2023).
The incidence of craft enterprises, taking business branches as reference, is 40% on average both at national level and for Veneto, but the weight is halved to 23% for the province of Treviso. More limited is the incidence of employees of craft enterprises: on average in Italy it is 14.2% on the total, but it decreases to 9.4% for Veneto and to 3.8% for the Marca trevigiana.
From the analysis of enterprise locations, and the relative number of employees, one can also observe a different percentage weight of the size classes of employees depending on the territory considered. Let us take the number of active enterprises in each territory as 100:
in Italy, 71.6% have, on average, between 1 and 9 employees (19.8% of the sector’s employees are employed here), but 33.8% of the enterprises’ employees work in one of the 6 enterprises with more than 250 employees;
in Veneto, enterprises with a micro size (1-9 employees) represent 69.6% of the total, but 55.9% of the employees work in one of the 6 enterprises with a size 50-249 employees;
in Treviso and Belluno there are just over 470 employees in coffee roasting activities, more than half of whom are concentrated in two medium-sized enterprises.
Trade and coffee supply: specialised retail businesses and bars
In addition to the growth of coffee roasting activities in the provinces of Treviso and Belluno, a positive trend can be observed over the decade for specialised coffee shops.
In the province of Treviso, as of 31st March 2023, there were 18 units (between branches and dependent branches) dedicated to coffee retailing, ten years ago there were 5. This is a result in contrast with the general contraction in the number of businesses selling specific food or beverages, and that overall there has been a decrease of -102 activities over the decade. In the province of Belluno, the number of establishments specialising in the sale of roasted coffee is still small (3 establishments active at the end of March 2023), but even for the Belluno area, the trend over the ten-year period is positive, against a general decline of -54 establishments specialising in the retail sale of foodstuffs or beverages.
On the contrary, bars are decreasing in both provinces: in ten years there are -270 less activities in Treviso province and -176 in Belluno province. In both cases, the reduction of business premises is not compensated by the dynamics of dependent local units, for which a slight increase is observed in Treviso (+29 units) and a stationarity in the decade in Belluno.
Translated by Cecilia Flaccavento
Intern at the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso – Belluno|Dolomites