MILAN – Italy’s family-run Gruppo illy plans to open up its capital to investors if a plan to spin off the non-coffee part of the business and find a partner succeeds, the Group’s President Riccardo Illy said on Thursday.
Illy was speaking at an event organised in Milan by the Italian Banking Association.
By end-June next year, the family wants to spin off non-coffee operations into a sub-holding company and bring a partner in to help develop brands ranging from tea to chocolate and wine.
Riccardo Illy recently said the non-coffee business was worth around 100 million euros.
The Illy group plans to grow and separately list its non-coffee ventures, starting with its tea brand, French-based Dammann Frères, which could go public within two or three years, he said.
