Barry Dick MW and Olly Lawson are looking to touchdown next week in Verona for Vinitaly 2026. At the 58th edition of the world's most important Italian wine showcase, the Fero team arrive not just as observers of a market in flux, but as representatives of a platform built to solve the exact problems Italian producers are wrestling with right now.
Italy is the world's largest wine producer by volume, a country where the sector is worth north of €11 billion in bottled sales, according to the most recent ISMEA market report (2024-2025), and exports hitting €7.7 billion in 2025 according to the latest Istat data published last month. But beneath those headline numbers, structural pressures have been building.
A market under pressure
The timing of Fero's Italian push is deliberate. After a record-breaking 2024, the Italian wine sector endured a difficult 2025. A WineNews survey of 25 leading Italian wine companies, which collectively represents over €2.5 billion in turnover, found that more than 40% recorded a decline in revenues, and over half closed the year at break-even at best. Export data from Istat for the first eleven months of 2025 showed a -3.6% decline in value and -2% in volume compared to the prior year.
The headwinds are well-documented and not within Italian producers control. US tariffs of 15% on EU wine imports, which were introduced in August 2025, are estimated by Italy's Unione Italiana Vini (UIV) to cost the sector more than €300 million in the first year alone. Domestic consumption, like most markets, has also been declining for decades. And logistics costs remain elevated against a backdrop of currency volatility and uncertain global trade flows.
But it is a more structural, less-discussed challenge that makes Italy such a compelling opportunity for Fero: the chronic fragmentation of the Italian wine supply chain, and the working capital burden it places on producers who are too often working without the financial infrastructure their ambitions deserve.
What Fero brings to Verona is a rare combination: the financial firepower of a $550 million asset-backed securitisation programme, the operational intelligence of an end-to-end supply chain platform and crucially the wine industry credibility to speak the language of Italian producers.
The fragmentation challenge
Italy's wine landscape is extraordinary in its diversity and genuinely difficult in its complexity. As analysis from Intesa Sanpaolo's IMI highlights, 35% of Italian wine-growers farm less than 5 hectares, compared to just 7% in France. While this granularity is part of what makes Italian wine so exciting – translating to hundreds of native varieties, distinct appellations, deeply local identities – it also means that most producers operate without the economies of scale needed to manage complex international supply chains efficiently.
These producers are world-class winemakers. Many are not, nor should they need to be, logistics experts, trade finance specialists or supply chain technologists. Yet the demands on them are growing. Getting product from cellar to customer is not simple. Whether that's a London restaurant, a New York importer or a Tokyo wine bar, the solution involves a web of freight providers, storage facilities, duty regimes, compliance requirements and cash flow timing mismatches that would challenge businesses many times their size.
The result is that capital that should be driving quality, innovation and market development is instead trapped in inventory. Wines sit in bond while producers wait for payment cycles to complete. Opportunities are missed not because the product isn't good enough, but because the financial infrastructure isn't in place to support the ambition.
What Fero brings to the table
What Fero brings to Verona is a rare combination: the financial firepower of a $550 million asset-backed securitisation programme, the operational intelligence of an end-to-end supply chain platform and the wine industry credibility to speak the language of Italian producers. This is precisely the gap Fero was built to close.
The platform combines working capital solutions – buying wine stock from producers and making it available as needed, freeing up cash without disrupting commercial relationships – with an operational layer that manages logistics, procurement, fulfilment and invoicing from a single interface.
For Italian producers eyeing export markets, this is transformational. Fero has already connected clients to over 600 suppliers, resellers and retailers across more than 30 markets, supported by a logistics network spanning over 90 freight providers and storage centres. The securitisation deal has significantly extended the platform's reach into the US, EU and Australia, exactly the markets Italian wine needs to navigate as it rebalances away from US tariff exposure.
The model is particularly well-suited to the Italian context. Producers who have historically relied on banks, which have shown limited appetite for inventory-backed lending, can instead access capital tied directly to the quality and commercial viability of their wine. For a sector where the wine itself is the primary asset, that distinction matters enormously.
With Barry Dick MW and Olly Lawson heading to Verona, the Fero team is well positioned to speak and listen to producers about their particular challenges. With their experience they also are well positioned to also provide one possible solution. The Fero team is a team that understands that the best Barolo needs time, the best Prosecco needs speed to market, and that Italian cooperatives managing thousands of grower relationships have funding needs that don't fit standard templates.
Vinitaly 2026: A fair reflecting the moment?
The 58th edition of Vinitaly, which will run 12–15 April in Verona, is itself a barometer of how the Italian industry is trying to adapt. Nearly 4,000 Italian wine companies and operators from more than 130 countries will converge on Veronafiere, with Vinitaly doubling down on digital infrastructure, B2B matching and market internationalisation as core themes. The fair's expanded Vinitaly Plus platform and new Buyers Club reflect the same impulse that drives Fero: the recognition that connectivity, efficiency and smart capital deployment are not optional extras for Italian wine, but existential necessities.
Italian producers know they are navigating one of the most complex periods the sector has faced in a generation, including tariffs, consumption shifts, climate disruption and regulatory headwinds. But there is also a deep resilience here, and a genuine appetite for the tools and partners that can help them grow on their own terms.
For Fero Italy is a logical and compelling next chapter for Fero's expansion. The scale of the market, a major exporter to every key market Fero operates in and the depth of the structural need make it a match for Fero's platform, which was what it was designed to serve. Italy's wine producers deserve financial and operational infrastructure as world-class as their wines. Fero is here to provide it.
Fero is a technology-enabled supply chain funding partner for the wine and spirits industries, providing working capital and supply chain technology from a single platform. The Fero team is attending Vinitaly 2026 in Verona, 12–15 April. To arrange a meeting, please email erin.smith@ferodrinks.com or whatsapp us +44(0)7885654163.
