Bulgarian distribution company Avendi, part of BM Holding, entered the Bulgarian olive oil market with the Italian brand Filippo Berio, said Bogdana Kroumova, manager of the company’s Foods division, as quoted by Dnevnik daily on October 24.

The Filippo Berio product series was positioned in the higher price range and was aimed at retail stores, as well as hotels, restaurants and coffee shops. It was the seventh new food brand that the company had launched on the Bulgarian market since the beginning of 2007. Avendi planned to market only this brand of olive oil on the local market, following a strategy of exclusivity for certain products, said Kroumova.

The launch of Filippo Berio on the Bulgarian market further intensifyed the competition among olive oil brands, said Dnevnik. In the past few years, a number of olive oil products entered the local market and currently there were at least 20 positioned in the three price segments. In the high-price part of the market Filippo Berio would compete with Costa d’Oro and Carpelli, and brands like Borges, Hojiblanca, Monini, Minerva and others.

The Filippo Berio series included extra virgin olive oil, which was was the most expensive one, pure olive oil – a mixture of extra virgin and refined, and light olive oil.