The story
Sogegross began in the San Martino district of Genoa as a grocery store in 1920 when it was purchased by Ercole Gattiglia and his wife. The turning point happened in 1945 when Augusto Gattiglia, Ercole's son, together with two of his brothers, began on the one hand to produce sweets and on the other to operate as wholesale traders.
In 1970, the first Cash & Carry was born, and in 1987, the company launched their first retail location, creating the Basko brand. The Doro supermarket chain was launched in 1991, and 1993 saw the creation of the Ekom discount store chain. In 2004 the group, led by Vittorio Gattiglia, consolidated thanks to the acquisition of a dozen Conad stores. They also expanded into neighbouring regions, including to Lombardy in 2016, becoming one of the top ten Italian private large-scale distribution companies, with a turnover reaching €872 million in 2017 and with about 230 stores in total. Also in 2017, the company decided to build a new logistics centre on the outskirts of Genoa, in Val Polcevera, investing €30 million into the project.
From Wikipedia’s article on Sogegross, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4