Redazione

🌾 At Vinitaly, a successful conference on agrivoltaics in viticulture highlighted the potential of combining agriculture and photovoltaics. Moderated by Davide Gangi, the event featured experts including Donato Pentassuglia and Professor Maurizio Boselli, who pioneered agrivoltaic research since 2009 in Valpolicella. Boselli's work, internationally recognized, showed slower grape maturation and improved sugar-acid balance due to panel shading. Pasquale Venerito noted distinctive characteristics in agrivoltaically-grown grapes, such as lower pH and complex aromatics. Franco Dell’Acqua discussed agrivoltaics' benefits for Puglia's agriculture, including water savings. Nicola Mele, co-founder of Vigna Agrivoltaica di Comunità, aims to produce eco-friendly wine and energy. The 12-hectare project will produce 5,000-20,000 bottles by 2025, involving universities and research centers.

☕ Evoca Group's professional coffee machine, Wittenborg W100, has won the Red Dot Design Award in the Product category, marking its third consecutive design award following the European Product Design Award and the iF Design Award. The Red Dot Design Award, established in 1955, is an authoritative international design accolade. The W100 machine is recognized for sustainability, high-quality materials, advanced technology, and reducing downtime by up to 20%. It features cloud services integration, real-time maintenance monitoring, drink customization, an intuitive user interface, and energy efficiency with a class A++ rating.

🛒 Despar Italia, after closing 2024, reports a 2.6% increase in turnover to €4.5 billion compared to 2023. The growth was driven by 64% of sales from direct stores and 36% from affiliated shops. In 2024, Despar expanded its network by 110 interventions, including 75 new openings and 35 restylings, reaching 1,323 points of sale. Eurospar stores saw a 4.4% increase, outperforming other formats. Affiliated entrepreneurs contributed €1.6 billion, 35.6% of the total turnover, with 62 new affiliated stores opened. Despar's own-brand products exceeded €1 billion in revenue, a 23.9% market share, up by 1.2 percentage points, with over 200 new products launched and more than 300 restylings. The company also continued its commitment to sustainability, planting 1,600 new trees and involving over 6,936 schools in educational initiatives.