In order to feel a little at home, guest workers used to bring groceries from home in boxes. The longing stayed. Two Neapolitan entrepreneurs are now breastfeeding them digitally and at Italian prices.
This personal memory dates back an eternity. The train journey began in Naples, towards Milan. A middle-aged woman sat in the compartment. She had placed a tightly tied cardboard box on the luggage rack. Although it was autumn and the heating was still turned off, the smell of salami and cheese in the compartment grew more and more intense. That wasn’t unusual at the time, so it didn’t bother anyone, but gave the opportunity to start a conversation. When asked if the cheese was provolone, the woman replied: “Yes, I bring it to my son to make him feel a little at home. Because he works and lives in Milan. There aren’t any here in the south Opportunity to build a future.”
Forty years have passed, a lot has changed, but not everything. In the past, it was mainly the workers who emigrated north, often across the border to Germany and Belgium, to find work in the factories. Today it is the bright minds who are looking for space because they see no future prospects in Italy. In this country, the migration of skilled workers is called “Fuga dei cervelli”.
In those days you traveled a whole day, if not longer. Today you can take low-cost flights or, if you are only going from southern to northern Italy, the high-speed train Freccia Rossa and you can reach your destination in a few hours. What is missing compared to before are the food packages. Although they are still available for those who have emigrated abroad, they are now forwarded by the mother by post.
And that gave Flavio Nappi and Romolo Ganzerli the idea of ??doing something. The two men from Naples met each other while studying at the ESCP business school in Paris. Nappi is now 38 years old, and Ganzerli 32. Both have spent many years abroad. You know the longing for the morning smell of an espresso, for Mama’s lasagna and her tomato sauce, which is called “alla bolognese” in German and just “ragù” in Italian.
Of course, you can now get many Italian branded products abroad, but they are often twice, if not three times more expensive than in Italy. “That led us to found the Mammapack platform in 2018,” Flavio explains to ntv.de. He has been living in Naples again since 2019 and is fully dedicated to the company. His partner Romolo continues to work in Geneva instead.
The website is in Italian only. One understands why as soon as one has translated the sentence under the logo. It says: “Online shopping for Italians abroad, at the right price. A treasure trove of emotions and advantages.” “Although we plan to translate the website into German, English, French and Spanish in the near future, it was important to us to address our compatriots first and foremost, to give them a feeling of home,” explains Flavio.
Going through the products on offer, in addition to pasta, sauces, oil, cheese, sausage and wine, you will also find an impressive selection of breakfast biscuits – “Breakfast at home without caffè, better still caffelatte and biscuits, is not breakfast,” adds Flavio.
There are also other products that you would not necessarily have expected. For example, you can find the baby products section. Not only baby food is offered, but also care products for the little ones: diapers, creams, shampoos and bath products. “If you’ve known and trusted a product since you were a child, you want it for your own children too,” emphasizes Flavio. He also knew that from a friend who is now married in Vienna and buys the products for her children at Mammapack. It’s not about a quality comparison, but about a connection to one’s own roots. The same goes for body care and home cleaning products, which also have two divisions. And then another for man’s four-legged friends, dogs and cats.
Delivery takes three, maximum four, working days. In Germany, there are no shipping costs for orders over 99 euros. But even if these are added, the products are still cheaper than in supermarkets in Berlin, Paris, Vienna, London or elsewhere, says Flavio.
The figures also prove that the idea was spot on. The annual turnover is now two million euros. Mammapack has around 40,000 customers in 21 European countries and has sent around 52,000 packages. The largest customer base, 17 percent, is in Germany. These are first and second generation Italians. “Although it must be added that eight percent of deliveries also go to Germans without family ties to Italy,” adds Flavio. The love of Italian food seems to overcome the language barrier or be an incentive to deepen one’s knowledge of Italian.
For Flavio Nappi, the recipe for success of the food packages from home is obvious: “We Italians have a very special bond with the products we grew up with,” he explains. “I’ve lived in France and Spain and never seen the same thing anywhere.”
