The world of Italian wine reserves continuous surprises. The latest comes from Verona: Cantina di Custoza cooperative founded in 1968, which extends over an area of about 1.000 hectares, mainly located on the morainic hills south of Lake Garda and Cantina Valpantena, founded 65 years ago by a group of winegrowers which today brings together 250 farms, which cultivate a total of about 750 hectares of vineyards, of which more than 30 are organic, have decided to merge, creating a new reality with a turnover of 65 million. This is how the "Cantine di Verona" saw the light, a reality with assets of around 30 million euros, with a contribution allocation of 300 quintals of grapes and about a hundred employees.
Particularly important especially in these times of suffering in the sector: Cantina Valpantena and Cantina di Custoza, establishing the guidelines that set the economic and commercial development process of the post-merger company, have agreed to maintain the employment levels existing up to now.
“The new reality, born from the meeting of two historic and recognized Cooperatives of Verona – commented the president of Cantina Valpantena Luigi Turco – invites us to have greater responsibility towards the members, employees and their families. We are convinced that, with everyone's involvement, we will be able to present ourselves on the market with an increasingly competitive and structured company, capable of supporting the commercial investments necessary to conquer the markets once we emerge from the pandemic. The change of name underlines our deep bond with the city of Verona: Cantina Valpantena has been the winery of the Verona area for over 60 years and now that we have chosen to call ourselves Cantine di Verona this bond will be even more evident".
“I am very satisfied – declares the president of Cantina di Custoza Giovanni Fagiuoli – with the result we have achieved today. The merger with Cantina Valpantena is the culmination of many years of work that have seen me as president of this reality: I am convinced of the validity of the operation and of the positive repercussions it will have on our shareholders”.
The extraordinary shareholders' meeting of Cantina di Custoza which took place today, Saturday 20 March, approved the merger with Cantina Valpantena, with 118 votes in favor out of 156 valid.
The shareholders of Cantina Valpantena had instead already expressed their consent during the meeting held on Friday 18 December: the proposal for the merger with Cantina di Custoza had obtained 97% of votes in favor (196 out of 202 voters).
“It is a historic operation of enormous value for the area, which over time will reveal its fruits, adds Luigi Turco – I also hope that those who legitimately voted against will be able to realize the goodness of the initiative. We thought of it with respect for the two participating realities, with the desire to further enhance the territories to which they belong and the respective denominations".
“The new reality, born from the meeting of two historical and recognized Cooperatives of Verona invites us to greater responsibility towards the members, employees and their families. We are convinced that, with everyone's involvement, we will be able to present ourselves on the market with an increasingly competitive and structured company, capable of supporting the commercial investments necessary to conquer the markets once we emerge from the pandemic. The change of name underlines our deep bond with the city of Verona: Cantina Valpantena has been the winery of the Verona area for over 60 years and now that we have chosen to call ourselves Cantine di Verona this bond will be even more evident".
Cantina Valpantena Verona had already operated an important merger in the past years. 60 exclusively oil companies with 150 hectares of olive groves had merged with the Oleificio delle Colline Veronesi which gave rise to an important oil and wine pole with a total number of 320 associated companies. The annual production exceeds 9.500.000 bottles for a turnover that in 2019/20 was around 46 million euros.
