Restaurant supplier’s growth bid

Sep 3 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

AN ONLINE entrepreneur who supplies restaurants with wine and food from his Italian homeland is targeting national expansion after seeing his client base more than double to 50 in the last 12 months.

Abruzzo-born Andrea D’Ercole, who runs Sunderland-based Italyabroad.com, is looking to extend his empire outside the region after seeing a surge in demand among North East clients which is expected to push annual revenue up 50% to £300,000 this year. The company is also in talks with Sunderland City Council’s Business Investment Team to identify a bigger premises in the city to amalgamate its current Stanfield Business Centre headquarters and its Stockton warehouse.

While the business predominantly services North East restaurants, it does have a handful of clients in London and Scotland which it is hoped will be the catalyst for a national sales drive. Mr D’Ercole said: “We deal with small producers that are often family run businesses, this way we ensure that every product is of the highest quality.”