Natale Farinetti, known as Oscar (; born 24 September 1954), is an Italian businessman and investor. Farinetti was the owner of the high-end Italian food mall chain

Eataly Eataly is a chain of large format/footprint Italian marketplaces (food halls) comprising a variety of restaurants, food and beverage counters, bakery, retail items, and a cooking school. Eataly was founded by Oscar Farinetti, an entrepreneur for ...

and founder of the consumer electronics chain UniEuro.

Personal life and career

Farinetti was born in Alba,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. His father was insurgent and deputy mayor of Alba Paolo Farinetti. After attending the

liceo classico Liceo classico or Ginnasio (literally ''classical lyceum'') is the oldest, public secondary school type in Italy. Its educational curriculum spans over five years, when students are generally about 14 to 19 years of age. Until 1969, this was ...

Govone in Alba, he started studying Business in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

in 1972, but dropped out from college in 1976. His father Paolo founded a small local supermarket in 1967 and named it UniEuro; a few years later Oscar became actively involved in the business. He was appointed board member in 1978, and then CEO & Chairman until 2003. The same year he decided to sell UniEuro to

Dixons Retail Dixons Retail plc was one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe. In the United Kingdom, the company operated Currys, Currys Digital, PC World (retailer), PC World (with stores increasingly dual branded 'Currys PC World'), Dixo ...

for £230m. In 2004 he founded the high-end Italian supermarket

. ''

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'' has described it as a "megastore" that "combines elements of a bustling European open market, a Whole-Foods-style supermarket, a high-end food court and a New Age learning center." The company is based in

Monticello d'Alba Monticello d'Alba is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located on the left bank of the Tanaro river, about southeast of Turin and about northeast of Cuneo Cuneo (; pms, Coni ; oc, Coni/Couni ...

Cuneo Cuneo (; pms, Coni ; oc, Coni/Couni ; french: Coni ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the fourth largest of Italy’s provinces by area. It is located at 550 metres (1,804 ft) in ...

and currently controls 28 stores in 7 different countries (

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United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, Japan,

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

). On March 18, 2014, Eataly opened its big 5,000-square-meter store in Piazza XXV Aprile in Milan. In November 2016, Eataly opened in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. On November 13, 2019, Eataly opened a 50,000-square-foot store in Toronto, Canada in the Manulife Centre on Bloor Street.

Media coverage

Farinetti's disruptive model has received significant media attention. His methods have been covered by publications including ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'', ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' and the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farinetti, Oscar 1954 births Italian chief executives Italian investors Italian restaurateurs Living people Eataly people People from Alba, Piedmont