Andrea Calistri
Founder & Strategic Advisor of AC Retail Advisory. Over twenty years as CEO and entrepreneur in Food Retail, Food Industry and organized restaurant chains.
CEO, entrepreneur, strategic partner
More than twenty years spent leading food businesses — not studying them. Andrea has held full P&L responsibility inside international groups, building organizations from scratch and taking them to the top of their markets: retail networks scaled from zero to dozens of stores and tens of millions in revenue within a few years, and a food group awarded the Financial Times FT 1000 among Europe's fastest-growing companies.
It is this hands-on experience — P&L, boards, investors, network roll-outs and managing hundreds of people — that he now puts to work for owners, CEOs and general managers. He speaks the language of decision-makers because he has made the decisions himself, from strategy to execution.
Among Europe's 1,000 fastest-growing companies
Under Andrea Calistri's leadership as CEO, the company entered the FT 1000 – Europe's Fastest Growing Companies ranking (Financial Times, 2024) and the Top 20 in Italy (Il Sole 24 Ore).
Areas of expertise
- General Management and full P&L
- Business & Growth Strategy
- Operations & Organizational Scaling
- Business Development & Go-to-Market
- Leadership & Team Building
- Board & Investor Relations
Career
AC Retail Advisory — Founder & Owner (2024 – present)
Advisory firm supporting entrepreneurs, food groups and retail/restaurant chains. Strategic support to owners, CEOs and general managers — and to Venture Capital funds investing in food — through growth, scale-up and organizational structuring.
EatHappy Group — CEO Italy, France, Benelux (2018 – 2024)
- 3rd player in the Italian sushi retail market (~15% share), built from scratch
- 50 EatHappy ToGo corners opened in 5 years · €13M revenue
- Wakame Italia: sushi industry for retail · €16M revenue
- ~15% EBITDA margin · FT 1000 recognition (2024)
Calistri & Partners — CEO & Founder (2015 – 2019)
- Old Wild West — franchising operating manual review
- Doppio Malto — proof of concept, purchasing, logistics, manuals
- Fiorital — project management of the first sushi corner in Milan
- Madeo — first deli & restaurant corner at FICO Bologna
- UCI Cinemas — gourmet bistro format · Sushi Take — sushi chain format
KellyDeli Italia — CEO Italy (2013 – 2015)
- Business built from 0 to 95 corners in three years · €65M revenue (2015) · ~20% EBITDA · market leader (share up to 50%, Nielsen)
Education
- CEO Program for Private Equity — Di Luccia Business School (2025)
- Using Data to Improve Pricing Performance — MIT, Boston (2021)
- Digital Marketing — Columbia Business School (2019)
Languages
Italian (native) · English (fluent) · French (fluent)
