TRENDS
Golden years
Casa Julia’s Enzo Santomauro highlights product development across their range and a remarkable half-century of success and growth.
GET IN TOUCH It’s a special time for the business as we began celebrating our 50-year milestone in April 2025, which will conclude in March 2026. We’d like to say a big thankyou to all our customers and suppliers that have given us special offers. This will continue until March, so if we’ve missed you, please let a member of staff know to add you to the mailing list. And while 2025 has been challenging, it’s not finished yet. We expect the chancellor in the autumn statement to bring more cost to wholesale, with further regulations and taxes. But we have had a good wheat harvest in most of Europe, and stability around the price of pizza flour. Ask us or your suppliers of flour for the T-shirts, caps and aprons that will be available in November.
We aim to strengthen our presence in retail, as in Italy, Caputo is the number one flour in both sales and recognition. A survey conducted in the South of England found that the most recognisable product was Caputo for pizza. However, I cannot say the same with tomatoes. With a shortage circa 30% down on last year, and a price increase of picked tomatoes, the finished product when it lands in the UK will go up from early predictions of July 2025. We have been very lucky to source our needs of Polpa 10kg bag in box, and none of our present customers will be short at the price agreed in July. In terms of San Marzano tomatoes, we’ve enjoyed the highest quality of the past 10 years – but overall there has been a shortfall and prices will substantially increase from the end of October. Promotion of Solania will continue, with price reductions, and hopefully we shall move from the number two spot. Peeled tomatoes are back to the prices of two years ago. We have taken the decision to sell only the best with 1.885kg net weight, 7% brick, and can ‘laccata’ internally, so won’t be competing with others on price. We do
not believe that the watery cans will be the future but that is just my opinion. FUTURE FOCUS Pasta wise, we only work with De Cecco and appear to be competitive at the high end of the market, especially with five-star hotels. Brands leading in London and the Home Counties are San Pellegrino, Noam from Germany, Meteor from Alsace, Wignac cider and Voss from Norway. We have chosen the best for our discerning customers, and still work with Peroni and Moretti. Artificial intelligence (AI) is also a key area, with us looking to streamline sales and purchase ledger, to concentrate more on how we can make the interaction between the customer and ourselves more friendly and efficient.
TESTING TIMES Our sales of Caputo flour are showing an increase of 11% year on year. It has become a cornerstone of our offering and a standout performer in 2025. A new mill is being completed next year to support the growth at its three existing mills. This facility is primarily dedicated to producing 1kg packs of flour. 50 230_P&P_Oct25_p50-51_Trends_G AB.indd 50
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