I’ve spent over 30 years working in food and drink marketing and am always on the lookout for brands that are doing remarkable things. Crosta Mollica is one of those brands. At the beginning of the year it featured in the bubbling under section of The Grocer’s 100 Biggest Brands and the sales numbers quoted were spectacular. In 2024 sales of the Crosta Mollica brand in the UK had grown by +44% to £77m, adding £24m of incremental sales.
Blown away by the numbers, and as a huge fan of the brand, I was delighted to get the chance to talk to Dean Lavender, a former colleague at Premier Foods, who is Crosta Mollica’s Marketing Director.
After updating me on the latest figures (global retail sales are now north of to £120m, with growth exceeding +40% every year for the last three years) Dean outlined the main drivers of success.
Post by Jon Goldstone, Managing Partner (Global)
1. Position with Clarity & Consistency
Crosta Mollica is not as new as you may think, it was first launched in 2009, but right from the start the positioning was crystal clear. Crosta Mollica offers a foodie audience amazing quality, modern Italian food which is wholly made in Italy. The brand has never veered away from this highly competitive positioning.
Dean explained that ‘modern’ played a critical role in ensuring that the brand stays the right side of authenticity. They aim to provide authentic products, but they never use the term ‘authentic’, instead using the phrase ‘Non Per Tutti’ (not for everyone) as a way to demonstrate their appeal to those who appreciate the truly Italian recipes, products and processes.
2. Integrate and Strengthen Distinctive Brand Assets from Day 1
Right from the start consumers referred to Crosta Mollica as the ‘black and white stripy one’ which has made it easy to remember and find in-store, particularly important when you have 188 products across 10 categories. A recent redesign has helped to strengthen this asset; the stripes have been made more prominent and the brand name is clearer and more legible.
3. Build Mental Availability with Distinctive Activations
As a modern Italian brand Crosta Mollica try to avoid the cliches of traditional Italy and do everything with contemporary style. Inspired by Italian passions like football, fashion and aperitivo hour all brand activations build the brand and are executed with real panache.
The recent sponsorship of Venezia’s women’s football team is a great example. Venice is the closest city to where Crosta Mollica pizzas are made, and Venezia are famous for being Italy’s most fashionable football club.
A similarly stylish approach has been taken to sampling and a recent pop-up restaurant in Shoreditch.
4. Build Physical Availability Systematically
As a premium brand Crosta Mollica started by growing a fanbase and distribution in premium retailers like Waitrose. Over time they have broadened distribution in the UK and extended into strategically selected European markets including France, Germany and Benelux.
Breadth of range has also helped build awareness. As a business that outsources all manufacturing, Crosta Mollica have also been able to penetrate a broad range of categories. Consumers experience it in multiple aisles from frozen desserts to bakery and savoury snacks but especially pizza.
5. Use Price as a Brand Building Tool
Crosta Mollica is unashamedly premium priced, targeted at those people and occasions where there is a willingness to pay a bit more for quality. They have avoided the pricing conventions of the categories that they have entered and simply charg a reasonable price for the quality they offer.
In big, heavily price promoted categories like pizza this pricing strategy has been highly successful. Pizza accounts for 70% of sales, is the most profitable part of the brand and is the growth engine, rapidly becoming the UK’s fourth largest pizza brand.
6. Focus on Your Strengths
One of the most remarkable things about Crosta Mollica is that they only employ 45 people, they are incredibly lean. They have realised that their expertise lies in sourcing, selling and marketing amazing Italian food, not in manufacturing it themselves. Using an exclusive network of artisanal Italian makers, they can offer a level of quality and innovation that their competitors are not able to match.
The Crosta Mollica brand is a textbook example of how to build a contemporary food brand. The clarity of positioning, strength of distinctive assets, single-minded focus of both mental and physical availability, all underpinned by a lean and agile business model make them a formidable player. Watch out for them to continue to maintain their tremendous momentum and crash into that Top 100 Brands.
Sources
The Grocer ‘Crosta Mollica Turnover Soars Following Private Equity Buyout’ (February 2025)
The Grocer ‘10 Brands Vying to Become Britain’s 100 Biggest’ (March 2025)
