Autogrill and Eataly team up for the first time, on the motorway

Autogrill, the world-leading provider of foodservice for travellers operating with its own brands and some of the world’s biggest labels under license, has joined forces with Eataly, the company which promotes the best of Made in Italy craft foods, to create a point of sale under a new format - “Eataly x Autogrill” - in the Secchia Ovest (Modena) service area managed by Autogrill on the A1 motorway. This is an “alliance of taste” enabling drivers, for business or pleasure, to enjoy a stop-off with quality food.

The initiative was presented today by Autogrill CEO Gianmario Tondato Da Ruos and Eataly founder Oscar Farinetti at an event held in the renovated service area. The point of sale is a fusion of Eataly’s philosophy, based on an offering of high quality products at affordable prices thanks to direct producer-distributor relationships, and Autogrill’s intention to innovate and diversify its offering in the motorway channel. Both brands believe in values like sustainability, responsibility and sharing, and have the same passion for quality and vision of a Made in Italy capable of appealing to the whole world.

This shared vision has translated into the respective strategies and programmes of the two companies which have now come together in a point of sale unique on Italian motorways. The new point of sale is on the A1, between the link with the A22 and the Modena Nord barrier, an area with significant flows of Italian and foreign travellers. Further, it is in a part of the country particularly renowned for gastronomy, Emilia-Romagna being one of Europe’s leading food producers and the region with the highest number of PDO and PGI products (43)[1]

In this point of sale it’s possible to savour specialities that embrace the wealth of Italy’s gastronomic tradition in a single space, all of them made with a strong focus on freshness and the sustainability of the production methods.

“Collaboration with Eataly, a brand that’s becoming an icon of Made in Italy food and wine, underscores our priorities of continuous innovation and the development of a high quality offering,” said Autogrill CEO Gianmario Tondato Da Ruos. “It confirms our capacity to work in a team with world leading brands both in Italy and abroad and offer a variety of formats developed in-house or operated under veritable “partnerships of ideas” capable of satisfying the most diverse needs of modern travellers with the best of Italy’s food culture. For us, this is the best way to interpret the future, a future increasingly focused on the quality of what we eat and of the places where we stop,” continued Tondato.

"A crucial part of travelling is the stop-off and the pleasures of a rest. With Autogrill we’ve designed a stop-off place in line with our principles. At last we’ll be able to stop in a service area that serves bread just out of the oven and made with sourdough and stone-ground organic flours, Neapolitan pizzas cooked in a wood oven, and a restaurant with table service. All this on one of the busiest sections of motorway in Italy, going south: a gastronomic digression from our customary haste. With “Eataly per Autogrill” you eat better and travel better," said Eataly founder Oscar Farinetti.

The Eataly x Autogrill at Secchia Ovest is characterized by the simplicity and thoroughness that all Eataly’s points of sale are known for. The location reflects a vision that puts the naturalness of the products and their craft production at the centre of attention.

The offering on the ground floor includes a round-the-clock café by Eataly and Kimbo, a long standing partner of Autogrill, and a confectionery counter with “Golosi di salute” pâtisserie by Luca Montersino, the Eataly pastry chef whose prized creations can also be found in Autogrill’s Bistrots at Milan’s Stazione Centrale (rail station) and in the Mercato del Duomo. Then there are Ortobra salads featuring wonderfully fresh vegetables and focusing on the best the market can offer season to season. Through craft pasta maker Michelis, Eataly x Autogrill is launching a special collaboration with the Modena pasta maker Rossi, which will provide the typical Modena tortellini (“Consorzio” standard) and passatelli with Parmigiano Reggiano. The offering features La Granda meat from the famous Piedmontese cattle breed (Slow Food Presidium). And lastly, being in Emilia-Romagna, there are two other indispensables: the craft piadina, here supplied by Fratelli Maioli (Cervia), and Lait ice cream made with mountain milk creamed at the last moment in an innovative production process.A wood oven bakery completes the ground floor offering with the making of various types of bread and focaccia, to be filled with Eataly products, all in full view of the customers.

The 1^st floor is dedicated to table service restaurants, seating a total of 350.

The restaurants on the 1^st floor are La Pasta, La Pizza and La Sosta, the latter dedicated to the philosophy of Tonino Guerra, based on the concept that taking a break must be a pleasure and slow down the rhythm of life. The approach in all the restaurants is geared to the express cooking characteristic of La Pasta, in which the firm of Michelis makes fresh pasta every morning for lasagne with La Granda meat sauce (Slow Food Presidium).La Pizza is the location’s real “flagship” restaurant: at last it’s possible, on the motorway too, to enjoy a true Neapolitan pizza, made in front of you with organic flours and cooked in a large traditional wood oven with a rotating floor.

While La Sosta offers travellers raw meat from La Granda, Giotto hamburgers and tagliata (sliced beef), all from strictly Piedmontese breed cattle (Slow Food Presidium). La Granda, the first Slow Food organization (founder Sergio Capaldo), is an association of breeders of Piedmontese cattle (razza Piemontese) who set themselves an extremely stringent code. No vitamins, no supplements, not even silage: only natural fodder cultivated and transformed on their own farms.

The new Secchia Ovest Eataly expects to see around 1,300,000 customers over the coming 12 months.

The new service area has a staff of around 115, rising to 80 per shift during peak traffic periods.