Fast Food Spreads Faster Across Italy, and It Is Heading South

Some of the world's largest fast food chains are expanding across Italy faster now than at any time since they first arrived in the country, and the growth is increasingly turning south, according to a mapping exercise published by The Local Italy.

For Lombardy the story is one of maturity rather than growth. Milan and its hinterland were the beachhead for the first wave of international chains, and a saturated northern market is the reason the marginal outlet now opens elsewhere. The region's exposure is at the supply end: the franchising, logistics, cold-chain and property operators headquartered around Milan are the ones who build the estate that is being rolled out.

The wire does not give outlet counts, brand-by-brand figures or a timetable, and La Veduta does not supply them from Italian sources. What the mapping establishes is direction and pace, which is the part that matters to anyone underwriting the expansion.