Whirlpool Italia and Eataly celebrate a new collaboration aimed at promoting Italian Quality. The 15th of November will see the operative launch of FICO – Fabbrica Italiana Contadina, the world’s largest agro-food park: a highly ambitious project promoted by the Municipality of Bologna and managed by FICO Eataly World. The “rural park” covers an area of 10 hectares, has no entry charge, and contains the very best of“Made in Italy” agriculture, food and gastronomy… with 2 hectares of fields and open air stables plus 8 covered hectares that play host to food processing workshops, bars and restaurants, food shops and markets, with areas devoted to sports, children and lecture halls, as well as a Conference Centre and a Foundation involving 3 different Universities.
Whirlpool decided from the outset to support this project: “Our presence at FICO is above all a tangible sign of our deep connection with Italy”, has declared Lorenzo Paolini, CEO Whirlpool Italia and VP Whirlpool EMEA. “To be here, along with countless examples of Italian Quality, is a kind of tribute to a nation that has given – and continues to give – so much to our Group. In Italy we have six industrial sites and two global research and development hubs, as well as our Headquarters for the EMEA region. Italy has also seen the birth of brands that feature in the history of domestic appliances, and of Whirlpool Corporation, such as Ignis, Indesit and Ariston.”
Whirlpool Corporation has always believed in the Italian market, where it currently employs over 6,000 people, thanks to a capillary network across the country, with 5 manufacturing plants, the EMEA spare parts center, and our new Headquarters for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), recently inaugurated in Milan, within the Expo 2015 area. Whirlpool will be present in the FICO Park in two different places: a Show Cooking-Piano area set right at the heart agro-food centre, plus a shop-in-shop devoted to selling small domestic appliances.
Show Cooking-Piano
The Show Cooking area offers a perfect blend between music and food, where a grand piano becomes a cooker with two induction hobs and a KitchenAid brand oven, and where gastronomic harmonies are invented… inspired and accompanied by a pianist’s melodies. The message is that – exactly as with music – culinary harmonies are created by combining various notes and elements which when blended together bring to life original and unexpected creations, offering pleasure to lovers of fine dining… and fine music! A marriage of different compositions offering a multi-sensorial experience which amplifies and multiplies the pleasures of musical pieces and gourmet dishes, turning a convivial gastronomic experience into a moment of collective artistic enjoyment. And so the kitchen becomes a theatre, where flavours and sounds provide a concert where design and style highlight the elegance and vision that only authentic maestros can create.
Shop-in-shop
The shop-in-shop, on the other hand, is a retail point where shoppers can buy Whirlpool microwave models and also explore the small domestic appliances in the Hotpoint range: perfect allies in the kitchen for those who wish to actively embrace the food philosophy of FICO focused on product genuineness, quality and personal well being.
But that’s not all! Inside the shop-in-shop, an interactive monitor allows users to enter Whirlpool Corporation world and to explore large appliance models produced by the Whirlpool, Hotpoint and Indesit brands… and order them, to be delivered directly to their homes. Through its participation in the FICO project – highlighting the excellence of Italian Quality food in collaboration with Eataly – Whirlpool once again demonstrates its commitment and determination to invest in Italy.