A Heart of Italian Ice Cream in Brazil

Brazil was a virgin market for one of Italy's food delicacies: craft made ice cream. Fabio Lampugnani, 44 and an MBA graduate from SDA Bocconi School of Management, realized it in 2012, when he opened the first Cuordicrema (Creamheart) store. He now owns four gelaterias: "I've always had a passion for refined products and craftsmanship", the Italian entrepreneur says. He would like to make a leap by adding seven more stores, six of which as franchises. Fabio landed in Brazil after a career as food entrepreneur in the Maghreb and Middle East, and a past as management consultant in the US, the Carribeans, and South-East Asia. With a friend, he set up a company managing Italian ice cream parlors, espresso bars, and pastry shops across the Arab world. "I was living in Beirut at the time and we owned stores in Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, and were about to open a store in Dubai and launch franchises in Libya and Egypt. Then the Arab Spring came and we had to divest from the countries most affected by the unrest".

However, this setback was also the occasion to give life to a project he'd been thinking about for some time: taking Italian quality ice cream to Brazil. "Cuordicrema was born on Tunis' sea promenade", Fabio remembers. "From the start, I worked together with two MBA colleagues, Massimiliano Bosio and Gabriele Belsito, friendships that were born in the classrooms of Bocconi's business school. Both have participated to the startup phase as investing partners." Lampugnani explains the issues a startup has to contend with in Brazil: "The first challenge is to understand the business environment, because it can be hard to find the right skills locally. In fact, at first we had to import the skills needed by having trainers come from abroad." Also, since only few people work in a startup, there is the need of outsourcing crucial administrative and legal services. "In this respect, Brazil can be very inefficient", the SDA Bocconi alumnus explains. On the other hand, and this is what made Fabio invest in San Paulo "It's a blue ocean market, because there is almost no competition, although things have changed since 2013. Everybody is now enthusiastic about launching new business ventures".