Riello Buys Italsur to Seed a Frozen Food Platform

Riello Investimenti has bought a majority stake in Italsur, the Abruzzo frozen-vegetable firm with sales of more than €23 million ($25.8 million). The Milan manager did the deal through its Buy&Build Opportunities fund, and its statement on the Italsur majority gave no price.

On 16 October 2026, Bluegem Capital Partners signed an agreement for Rispo Group, a frozen specialty maker with more than €90 million of expected 2026 sales. Three days later Riello named a much smaller vegetable plant as a platform. Italy’s freezer cabinet is still a family trade, and funds have started treating those plants as things you can stack.

A Single Plant in the Vomano Valley

Italsur was founded in 1990 by Domenico Tullii and is now run by his sons Carmine and Andrea from Notaresco, in Teramo’s Vomano valley. The company selects crop, harvests it and freezes it in one plant, then sells mostly to other businesses, with supermarket volume under private labels and the Campi Reali brand.

Leafy vegetables, peas and green beans make up about half of what comes off the line. The rest is other horticulture, dry goods, fries, vegetable burgers, sides and first courses, packed in formats the customer asks for rather than a long branded range.

WHAT COMES OFF THE NOTARESCO LINE

• Core volumes: Leafy crops, peas and green beans account for about half of output.
• The rest of the plant: Other vegetables, dry products, fries and ready dishes such as burgers, sides and first courses.
• How it sells: Most volume is B2B; shops see private-label packs and Campi Reali.

That mix is a processor’s mix, not a vegan-brand mix. Riello is buying industrial freezing skill and a customer book, not a consumer name that already fills a national aisle.

Buy&Build Opportunities Needed a Food Platform

Italsur is the third deal for Buy&Build Opportunities, Riello’s fourth private-equity fund, which was started in February 2025. On 12 March 2025 the firm said the vehicle would invest up to €300 million in Italian small and mid-size firms, mainly by combining companies in broken-up trades: food and drink, manufacturing and automation, and lifestyle and wellness.

The English funds page still lists €90 million committed at first closing, with the fund open for more money, and it states the method in one line: buy a platform, then fold in smaller firms from the same chain. About 80% of investors in the previous private-equity fund came back, the March 2025 note said. Article 8 of the SFDR applies, and a slice of the team’s pay is tied to sustainability targets.

THE FUND’S PUBLIC CLOCK

1. 12 March 2025: Riello announces the first close of Buy&Build Opportunities and a ceiling of €300 million.
2. 16 December 2025: The fund takes 70% of Filtes International, a Brescia industrial-yarn maker with 2024 sales of more than €19 million.
3. 16 October 2026: Bluegem signs for Rispo Group, a four-plant frozen specialty business.
4. 19 October 2026: Riello announces a majority in Italsur, its first named food buy in the fund.

Filtes was the second disclosed deal; the first was never named. The yarn company, based in Capriolo, sells cut-resistant and heat-resistant thread, employs 71 people, and takes about 90% of sales outside Italy. Italsur sits in a similar sales band and a different trade. Food is the slot the fund had not yet filled in public.

Andrea Tomaschù, a partner and chief executive at Riello Investimenti SGR, said when the fund launched that Italian family firms had become more open to combinations because they see the operating and competitive gain. Luigi Terranova, a partner, said the aim was to build industrial groups that work as one. Italsur is that thesis applied to a freezer, not a new thesis about frozen food alone.

Vegetables Still Lead a €6.1 Billion Freezer Market

The Istituto Italiano Alimenti Surgelati, which publishes the annual consumption snapshot, put 2025 volume at 1,040,596 tonnes, up 1% from 2024, and put the market at €6.1 billion, up 3%. It was the third year above one million tonnes. Home freezers took 642,140 tonnes, up 1.1%, and out-of-home kitchens took 398,456 tonnes, up 1%.

ITALY’S FREEZER IN 2025

• Total volume: 1,040,596 tonnes of frozen food, with retail and foodservice adding to that exact figure.
• Market value: €6.1 billion, of which retail was €3.866 billion and foodservice about €1.9 billion.
• Biggest category: Vegetables still lead, at more than 200,000 tonnes, ahead of fish (more than 100,000 tonnes) and potatoes (about 93,000 tonnes).
• 2026 so far: Retail volume in the first half ran 3.4% above the same stretch of 2025, with value up 3.6%.

Giorgio Donegani, president of the institute, said the rise runs across categories and called out fish, pizzas, prepared vegetables and ready meals. That last pair sits next to what Italsur already packs beside its peas and beans. Vegetables are not a side bet in this market; they are the largest frozen item Italians take home, and they are the item Riello just bought the plant for.

Riello’s own investor pages say 80% of Italian firms are family-controlled and 25% face a generational handover, which is the deal flow it wants. A €23 million freezer with one site and a B2B book is the size the fund described as a platform, not the size of a finished national brand.

Rispo Sold Three Days Before Italsur

Bluegem, a pan-European mid-market firm with about €1 billion under management, signed an agreement to acquire Rispo Group from funds managed by Europe Capital Partners. Rispo’s managers will keep a minority. The pact still needs the usual regulatory clearances, so it is a signed deal, not a closed one.

Rispo, founded in 1991 and based in Maddaloni in Campania, makes arancini, supplì, olive all’ascolana, fried courgette flowers, pinsa and Roman focaccia under Rispo, Garbo, Gela and Panificio Villa. It runs four Italian plants, employs more than 250 people, and sells to more than 750 customers in Italy and more than 15 other countries. Bluegem put 2026 sales at more than €90 million and EBITDA at about €14 million, and it has talked about using the group as a European base for premium frozen specialties, with extra weight on pinsa and focaccia abroad.

TWO OCTOBER FROZEN DEALS

Italsur’s sales are about a quarter of Rispo’s 2026 floor, and both floors are “more than” figures. The comparison that matters is shape, not a fake precision on price. Rispo is already a four-site specialty group that one PE house is handing to another. Italsur is still a single Abruzzo plant whose new owner writes “aggregation” into the brief. They are not the same trade, and they are not the same stage of build.

Franck Bocquet stays as Rispo’s chief executive, and Paolo Perego is set to become chairman. Europe Capital Partners had held 55% since 2018, so that sale is a fund-to-fund pass with managers rolling. The Tullii sale is a family majority going to a fund that has not yet shown its next food add-on.

Why the Tullii Family Sold a Majority Stake

Carmine Tullii is president. He and Andrea remain the operators Riello says it wants to keep. BPER arranged and structured the package, and Banca Sella lent. The exact percentage, the cash that changed hands, and whether any earn-out sits behind the majority were not published.

Today a new chapter opens in the history of Italsur S.r.l., a company with a great family story. Our father, Domenico, the most expert freezing technician in Italy, with the constant support of our mother Clara, built a solid company, leaving a clear mark on how to run it: with respect for work, seriousness in commitments and attention to people. Today we have the responsibility to carry forward what was built and which also grew thanks to the skill and dedication of our colleagues. We consider the collaboration with Riello Investimenti a concrete opportunity to grow, strengthen our structure and look to new goals. We face this challenge with enthusiasm, strong in the values of determination and fairness that we share with each of our colleagues.

Carmine Tullii, president of Italsur

Marco Visini, investment director of private equity at Riello Investimenti SGR, said Italsur had built solid industrial skill and a deep knowledge of its market. He said the firm’s job is to stand with that management, put financial and industrial tools next to it, and put the company on a more structured growth path. In the fund’s own wording, structured growth means other plants, not a louder Campi Reali advert.

Campi Reali is still a small shop brand beside a bulk business. In June 2024 the name went on a Serie A2 volleyball club in Cantù as the family pushed the label toward supermarket freezers, a move that only makes more sense if a fund now pays for range, listings and cold-chain reach the family did not fund alone.

Aggregation Starts With One Vegetable Plant

A platform with one factory is a bet that other vegetable freezers will sell. Visini’s “quality jump” is that work: overlapping customers, shared packing formats, maybe a second site that already IQF-freezes peas or leaf in another valley. The March 2025 launch note even allowed add-ons outside Italy, but the first food asset is local, B2B and green.

The public trail on this buy was thin. Italian private-equity channels restated the release, and there was no visible contest for the asset, which is what a quiet €23 million plant looks like when the larger specialty group in the same week is the one with four factories and a foreign sales map. Riello is not assembling a frozen-food empire in one stroke. It has a vegetable plant, an open fund, and a written plan to bolt similar plants onto it.

BPER stood the finance up and Banca Sella lent against it. The next disclosure that would make the platform real is another name in the same aisle.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Does the Campi Reali Brand Sell in Shops?

Campi Reali is Italsur’s own retail name sitting beside private-label work, and a foodservice catalogue already lists items such as a frozen legume-and-cereal soup under that mark, made from IQF vegetables and grains. In 2024 the family also put the name on Pool Libertas Cantù, a Serie A2 volleyball side, as it tried to move the brand from bulk wholesale into supermarket freezers.

Which Other Company Has Buy&Build Opportunities Bought?

The only other named buy is Filtes International, a Capriolo maker of high-performance industrial yarns for safety gear, where the fund took 70% in December 2025. Filtes had 2024 sales of more than €19 million, 71 staff, two Brescia plants and a US unit, and about 90% of its sales sit outside Italy, more than half of them outside Europe.

How Much Frozen Food Do Italians Eat in a Year?

The Istituto Italiano Alimenti Surgelati put 2025 consumption at 17.7 kilograms a head, up from 17.5 kilograms in 2024, on the back of 1,040,596 tonnes sold. Vegetables remain the volume leader at more than 200,000 tonnes, which is the shelf Italsur actually packs for.

What Rules Sit on Riello’s Buy&Build Fund?

Buy&Build Opportunities is classed as Article 8 under the SFDR and is set up to meet PIR Alternativi rules, with a slice of the investment team’s pay tied to sustainability KPIs. Nicola Riello, the firm’s chairman, said at launch that each deal is meant to join industrial and financial work, and about 80% of the prior fund’s investors rolled into this one.

Who Sold Rispo to Bluegem, and Is That Deal Closed?

Funds managed by Europe Capital Partners are the sellers; they took 55% of Rispo in 2018, and Rispo’s managers will reinvest for a minority. The October 2026 papers are a signed agreement still subject to regulatory approvals, with Franck Bocquet remaining chief executive and Paolo Perego named chairman, so Rispo has not been described as closed in the way Riello has described its Italsur majority.