номер 5, страница 52 - гдз по английскому языку 5-11 класс учебник Latham-Koenig, Oxenden

Five point fourteen.

Reporter: So, Alessandro, how did the idea of pasta evangelists come about?

Alessandro: Well, um, I'm, you know, half Italian, half English, and uh, I've always been interested in uh, in the sector of food and beverages. Mhm. And I've been thinking about creating a new brand in the food and beverage sector for quite a while. And I saw an opportunity of creating potentially the first premium artisanal fresh pasta brand in the UK, but even internationally. And so two and a half years ago, we started by selling Noki to my friends.

Reporter: Where are you based?

Alessandro: Our business is based in London. However, our products is distributed and sold everywhere in the UK. We have an office in Farington. Our kitchen is in uh, East London. And we also have a concession, a pasta Andrews concession in Harrods.

Reporter: Who actually makes the pasta?

Alessandro: So so yeah, we have a whole team of uh, of Sfolini, um, Maria Rosaria, Livia, Michelangelo, Federica, Francesca, uh, who make uh, fresh pasta every day. So Sfolini is an Italian word which means pasta artisans. And it derives from the word Sfolia, which is the pasta sheet. Right. All our Sfolini are Italians. Having said that, we are also training non-Italians to, to make uh, pasta such as Darna, uh, Saa, uh, Veronica. So people from Poland, Russia, Bangladesh, why not?

Reporter: Where do you get your ingredients from?

Alessandro: We have quite an extensive number of different suppliers for our ingredients because we make hundreds of different recipes. So we're always um, always working with with new suppliers, veg, meats, fish, eggs, flowers, and uh, I would say that we we we work with a with a mix of both Italian suppliers for some ingredients, but also British suppliers. Um, and um, I think I would say that the quality and the freshness of the produce is what we're most after, as well as the authenticity, whether it's the pistachios from Sicily or hazelnuts from Piemonte, it really depends.

Reporter: And um, approximately how much money did you need to raise to get the project off the ground?

Alessandro: Um, so, whilst it was relatively inexpensive to get the business started, IE I invested two thousand pounds. And even the second step was, was uh, relatively um, was not colossal, IE sixty thousand pounds. Once we were keen to increase growth, we raised larger amounts of money, IE we raised half a million and then one point seven million pounds.

Reporter: One of the ways in which you tried to get more investment was appearing on Dragon's Den. What happened when you went on the program?

Alessandro: So Dragon's Den was really an amazing, an amazing experience. We uh, we really enjoyed it. Um, it's gave immediate visibility to the brand to approximately two million individuals across the UK. Um, it was free. And um, the brand was shown in a very positive light. And we were able to showcase our products, our craftsmanship and our story. Uh, having said that, we didn't raise the capital from the Dragons.

Reporter: What would you say is the unique selling point, the USP of Pastor Evangelist?

Alessandro: I think the USP is uh, probably the quality. The quality of the product which is reflected which is a reflection of the artisanalit, the freshness, the originality, the ingredients themselves, the craftsmanship of the product, the fact that it's made by hand. So yeah, a handmade fresh product probably is our USP.

Reporter: Who are your main competitors?

Alessandro: I don't think there is direct competition. I, at the moment, to our knowledge, there aren't companies doing what we're doing. Exactly what we're doing. Having said that, the food industry itself is massively competitive. And therefore we're fighting for the same share of wallets as thousands of other companies. Uh, especially in the UK and London, people are bombarded with different offers, different companies, new brands, existing brands, restaurants, takeaway, Deliveroo, um, recipe boxes. So it is very competitive overall.

Reporter: How do your prices compare with having an Italian pasta dish in a restaurant?

Alessandro: Well, I'm glad you um, you um, suggested that our competition is Italian restaurants rather than supermarket pasta or takeaway pasta or other recipe boxes because indeed we see ourselves as restaurant quality delivered to your home. Uh, having said that, our dishes are on average twenty, thirty, in some cases forty percent less expensive than an equivalent dish sold in a restaurant in London, an Italian restaurant. Right. Um, and our pricing varies depending on what dish it is. We've done more than two hundred different pasta recipes to date. And the pricing varies from six pounds to perhaps a more, let's say simple dish to twelve pounds for a more luxurious pasta dish.

Reporter: How would you describe a typical customer?

Alessandro: It's hard to say because we do have our product is um, we we define it as quite democratic in that it's a product which appeals to several different types of customers. We have families, we have younger couples, we have people who buy it as a special occasion for dinner parties.

Reporter: Where do you sell your products?

Alessandro: So roughly a third of our sales are in London, two thirds are outside of London. So every day we ship hundreds of boxes from Cornwall to Scotland, to Wales, to the Isle of Man, um, everywhere. Everywhere. We fight, and we actually find that most locations where we ship to, apart from London, are small villages we've never heard of where there is less availability of uh, high, uh, uh, you know, high quality, uh, convenience food where um, where it's more difficult to find a product like ours.

Reporter: Are you hoping to expand your business?

Alessandro: So yeah, we we think that um, the market for our product in the UK is it's it's fairly vast. We think we've just scratched the surface. There's much more we can do. And we just started only two years ago. And so our plan is certainly to grow. Hopefully we can grow fourfold this year.

Reporter: Yes. Well, thank you very much, Alessandro. It's been lovely talking to you.