The first Starbucks in Italy, not a traditional Starbucks, but one of the exclusive elegant coffee-roasters Starbucks Reserve Roastery, celebrated its grand opening last night in Milan in Piazza Cordusio.
The mega-shop is based in an historical building, formerly headquarter of Poste Italiane, now owned by the Pacific 1 Fund, managed by the Italian real estate asset manager Kryalos sgr and entirely subscribed by Blackstone. The building was built between 1899 and 1901, has a total size of 14,000 square meters f which about 3,000 are for commercial uses both at ground and first floors. The building has been totally refurbished and trasformed thanks to a 20 million euros investment.
The Pacific 1 Fund was launched in 2014 and now has 9 buildings in its portfolio for about 100,000 square meters, mainly for office use, all based in Northern Italy (Turin, Milan, Florence and Genoa).
Giovanni Cutaia, Head of Global Asset Management Real Estate at Blackstone, and founder and ceo of Kryalos sgr, Paolo Bottelli, met yesterday Howard Schultz, Starbuck’s Chairman Emeritus, just a few hours before the celebration.
Schultz is the man who bought control of Starbucks in August 1987 from founders Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker, when the coffee chain was made of just 11 shops in the US. He then listed the company at Wall Street in 1992 and led it to where it is now with more than 28,000 shops in 77 countries in the world. Mr. Schultz resigned last June from his roles of executive chairman and member of the board, becoming chairman emeritus, while one year ago he had resigned from the role of ceo with Kevin Johnson entering in the role.
Bakery sold in the new Piazza Cordusio’s Starbucks comes from Princi, a well-known Italian bakery chain that signed an agreement with Starbucks back in 2016 for being the exclusive provider of food in all new Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in the world. Last November the two companies founded a joint venture to implement the agreement. That deal was facilitated by  Angel Capital Management (former Angel Lab), the venture capital investment veichle of the Moratti family, led Angelo Moratti, heir of the family who founded its wealth on the oil&energy group Saras, as he is son to Gian Marco Moratti and writer Lina Sotis (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Percassi Food&Beverage as unique licensee for Starbucks in Italy, will be owner and manager of all Starbucks shops. After Piazza Cordusio, other opening are expected in Milan, a couple of which in locations that are now shops of the household and gif items retail chain Dmail, owned by gruppo Percassi itself. Other openings are also expected in Turin, Rome and maybe Bergamo.
