Grom: the ice cream parlors close. Unilver focuses on large retailers

Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch multinational, closes the Grom ice cream parlors, acquired in 2015, and focuses on mass distribution.

The last closure in chronological order is the historic location in via Cernaia in Turin, where everything started in 2003 on the initiative of Guido Martinetti and Federico Grom. The news is today on the Sole 24 Ore.

In 2019 there were four closings, another three are expected in the first quarter of 2020. In Italy Grom has 40 ice cream shops plus two kiosks within Carrefour Gourmet in Rome and Milan and temporary stores. Grom does not dismantle ice cream parlors in Italy, but reorganizes itself by also focusing on other sales channels. The company (Unilever group) states this in a note. In recent years - he explains - there has been an evolution of the business model and a vision projected on the medium and long term, which takes into account new opportunities, new channels and new models of purchase and consumption: at ice cream shops, which thus becoming the heart of an ecosystem, Grom supports the on the go channel with kiosks or ice cream bicycles, large-scale distribution, bars and the direct to consumer channel, with a multi-channel strategy to support the brand's growth plan. We have renovated some ice cream parlors in Italy and are considering a new opening in the area. Italy is the first market for Grom - underlines the company - and continues to remain a strategic country. The aim is to accelerate growth which, in any case, reached an overall + 46.7% from 2015 to 2019, including all countries and channels.