Retail store chain Esselunga has been named as this year's Italian Retailer of the Year during a ceremony held near Turin, in the north-west region of Piedmont.
This year's awards, the second such event to be held in Italy, was organised by Q&A Research & Consultancy in collaboration with Corio, GDOweek, Mark Up and Metro.
During the course of the year, around 60,000 consumers throughout Italy were polled, covering a total of 121 chains across 19 different retail sectors.
For each chain, shoppers were invited to take part on a questionnaire in which they could pass judgement on the retailer's performance in a range of strategic areas, including the quality and pricing structure of its range, the ambience of its stores and the level of service offered by its staff.
According to Planet Retail, Milan-based Esselunga achieved sales of €5.7bn in 2008, compared with €5.4bn during the previous year.
The company currently has a 4.4 per cent share of the Italian grocery market, with sales growth forecast at 8.1 per cent for this year.
Food products account for almost 78 per cent of its total sales, with the vast majority of those sales occurring in its supermarket outlets.
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