F&P Gruppo can be described as "the rice specialist" and one of the only a few companies involved in the entire process. The company is producing only rice which means greater concentration to the product compared to other companies. The company is trying to achieve market share leadership by bringing differentiated, higher margin products to an increasingly segmented marketplace through various research and development activities of new and improved strains if high-quality rice, proprietary manufacturing processes, and packaging. A considerable amount of the profits are reinvested in R&D activities which ensures the strategy of obtaining 35% - 40% of total gross margin from products that were not in the product line five years before. Also, the brand name and the rooster logo were used consistently across geographic markets and product lines which bring great brand awareness. As a result of these activities the high-end products delivered to the company as much as 50 times the profit margin achievable through the sale of the same quantity of bulk rice. .
2. In Italian retail rice market which was fragmented with many local and regional millers selling under their own brand names, Gallo products accounted for 21% of Italian retail rice volume in 1991 by three products lines Riso Gran Gallo, Blond, and Grandi Risi del Mondo with 64.4%, 34.4%, and 1.2% of Gallo's total Italian sales volume respectively. In 1991, Gallo was carried in 80% of Italian grocery sales, more than any other brand. The perception of superiority of Meta"Tempo brand can be used to form a whole new dehydrated-product line and the competitive advantage of Gallo in dehydrated technology can be utilized. Also growing supermarket retail segment should be taken into account since Flora, the main competitor of Gallo with higher prices than Gallo, is more powerful in the growing supermarket/hypermarket retail segment.
