Salov Group Appoints Giacomo Campinoti to Lead Filippo Berio USA

Summary

Giacomo Campinoti has been appointed as the new CEO of Filippo Berio USA by the Salov Group, with the goal of expand­ing the brand’s mar­ket share and increas­ing house­hold pen­e­tra­tion of olive oil in the U.S. Campinoti will face chal­lenges such as nav­i­gat­ing tar­iffs on imported olive oil and increas­ing sales out­side of the north­east­ern U.S., with a focus on tar­get­ing Asian American con­sumers.

The Salov Group has appointed vet­eran food indus­try exec­u­tive Giacomo Campinoti as the new chief exec­u­tive of its largest sub­sidiary, Filippo Berio USA.

“With an accom­plished record of brand devel­op­ment and oper­a­tional excel­lence, Giacomo Campinoti is a nat­ural choice to serve as CEO and lead Filippo Berio USA into a new era of inno­va­tion and expan­sion,” said Salov Group chief exec­u­tive Gianmarco Laviola. 

“The U.S. is a key mar­ket for Filippo Berio, and we are cer­tain that Giacomo will sus­tain the sto­ried brand’s legacy while cre­at­ing com­pelling new growth oppor­tu­ni­ties,” he added.

Campinoti, a cer­ti­fied pub­lic accoun­tant, pre­vi­ously served in man­age­ment and exec­u­tive roles at sev­eral food indus­try and lux­ury brands, includ­ing nearly 11 non-con­sec­u­tive years as the chief finan­cial offi­cer and later as the chief exec­u­tive of De Cecco USA, which pro­duces and imports Italian extra vir­gin olive oil, pasta and pasta sauces. 

Before that, he worked as the direc­tor of finance and account­ing for Italian cof­fee giant Lavazza and as the finan­cial report­ing bud­get man­ager at fash­ion house Benetton USA.

Now, the Florence native will be expected to expand Filippo Berio’s mar­ket share in the world’s sec­ond-largest olive oil-con­sum­ing coun­try and brand aware­ness through strate­gic part­ner­ships and con­sumer edu­ca­tion.

Immediately, Campinoti will face uncer­tainty around the impo­si­tion of a ten per­cent tar­iff by the United States on imports from nearly every coun­try, includ­ing olive oil from the European Union.

Marco De Feo, the vice pres­i­dent of mar­ket­ing at Filippo Berio USA, told Olive Oil Times in a March 2025 inter­view that the com­pany has a respon­si­bil­ity to lobby the U.S. gov­ern­ment for exemp­tions for olive oil, empha­siz­ing how the prod­uct aligns with the ​“Make America Healthy Again” pol­icy.

“The main point is that there is not enough oil locally to sup­ply the demand,” De Feo said. ​“Hopefully, the gov­ern­ment will under­stand and allow olive oil to come in with­out major tar­iffs dis­rupt­ing the entire sup­ply chain.”

“If the tar­iffs do not last for too long, prices are unlikely to rise,” he added. ​“If they last longer, that will cre­ate some dis­rup­tion.”

Another chal­lenge fac­ing Campinoti will be to increase house­hold pen­e­tra­tion in the olive oil cat­e­gory, which cur­rently stands at about 50 per­cent.

“We saw house­hold pen­e­tra­tion spike dur­ing the Covid-19 pan­demic, when peo­ple were cook­ing at home much more, and that helped increase olive oil con­sump­tion,” De Feo said. ​“Due to the sup­ply chain issues that we expe­ri­enced dur­ing the last two years, house­hold pen­e­tra­tion has fallen to pre-Covid lev­els.”

“It’s unfor­tu­nate, but that shows there is poten­tial to grow the cat­e­gory,” he added. ​“We might never reach 90 per­cent, but even reach­ing 60 or 65 per­cent would be a huge increase, con­sid­er­ing per capita con­sump­tion is still less than one liter.” 

Campinotini is also expected to be tasked with increas­ing sales out­side of the north­east­ern U.S., which accounts for approx­i­mately 30 per­cent of the mar­ket share. 

Expansion efforts will include tak­ing on com­pa­nies such as Costco and Walmart, the lat­ter of which dom­i­nates olive oil sales in the south­east­ern U.S.

De Feo has iden­ti­fied Asian American con­sumers as a diverse and promis­ing demo­graphic for achiev­ing this goal.

“When we look at Asian pop­u­la­tions and con­sumers here in the U.S., we see a cul­ture that embraces the melt­ing pot and fusion cul­ture of try­ing dif­fer­ent foods and cuisines,” he said.

“A lot of Asian Americans who now under­stand olive oil health ben­e­fits are one of the major new con­sumer groups enter­ing the cat­e­gory, and they tend to select within the olive oil cat­e­gory, the more mild and del­i­cate fla­vor pro­files,” De Feo added. ​“Instead of a robust extra vir­gin olive oil, they may pre­fer refined olive oil or extra light olive oil.”

Despite the chal­lenges ahead, Campinoti said he looked for­ward to tak­ing the reins at the 158-year-old com­pany.

“Time and again, the U.S. mar­ket has demon­strated a healthy appetite for high-qual­ity, evolv­ing culi­nary expe­ri­ences,” he said. ​“I look for­ward to lead­ing the iconic brand in the U.S. and shar­ing its con­tin­ued inno­va­tion with an ever-wider audi­ence.”