2018

Haselünne, July 18, 2018 – Berentzen Group is, with immediate effect, the licensed distributor for the Italian herbal spirit Vecchio Amaro del Capo. Italy’s most popular herb liqueur is produced by Distilleria Caffo, a member of the Caffo Group based in Calabria.

“This partnership is a source of great satisfaction”, says Oliver Schwegmann, one of the Berentzen Group’s Executive Board members. The rates of sales growth experienced by Amaro del Capo in recent years are impressive. “With just under 7 million bottles sold each year and a current market share of 26 percent, del Capo is Italy’s number one herb-based liqueur”, Schwegmann explains. In its home country, it is clearly ahead of those competing products that are more familiar in Germany to date.

But del Capo has also become increasingly popular among German drinkers in recent years. “The sales volume in Germany has seen just under fivefold growth since 2013”, says Schwegmann. With 74,000 bottles sold in 2017 alone, sales increased by 72 percent on the previous year.

“As there is a great tradition of drinking herbal liqueurs in Germany, we have succeeded in introducing our product on this market and we have, in the meantime, already achieved important results”, explains Domenico Tripaldi, director of Caffo Deutschland GmbH. Fourth-generation owner and CEO of the Caffo Group, Sebastiano Caffo adds: “Expanding the presence of our products on international markets is certainly our greatest objective over the next few years. We identified the Berentzen Group as a suitable partner because we are convinced that, by joining forces and combining existing expertise, we will be able to generate even further strong growth also in Germany, in line with our corporate motto “Semper ad Maiora” – “Always Striving for Greater”.

Caffo Deutschland GmbH will remain responsible for product marketing in Germany also in future. With targeted campaigns such as tastings and gift boxes for the seasonal highlights, Caffo is additionally planning to implement measures such as an online/social medial campaign to continue consistently building up the product. The Berentzen Group will assume distribution activities for all food retailing sector and cash-and-carry customers in Germany.

Vecchio Amaro del Capo is a herbal spirit in which 29 different herbs, flowers, roots and fruits from the region are infused separately in fine alcohol for long periods of time. The composition of these infusions later captures the unique taste of Vecchio Amaro del Capo. “The high citrus fruit content in particular gives Amaro del Capo a much finer and fresher flavour than is usual with herbal spirits”, says Tripaldi. In conjunction with the very high quality of the product, this has already led to various international awards for the spirit. Vecchio Amaro del Capo is traditionally drunk icy cold at -20 °C in order to allow the aromas of the specific herbs used in Vecchio Amaro del Capo to develop their full potential.

The history of the Caffo Group begins with the opening of its first own distillery in 1915. Today, this fourth-generation family business produces a wide range of spirits.