I’m Mauro Sanna from Olivo Restaurants and I’m a #WORLDCHANGER

This week on the #WORLDCHANGERS series, we speak to Mauro Sanna, owner and founder of Olivo chain, four restaurants, a deli, and a gelateria. All places are famous for the authenticity and quality of the food.

Location: Belgravia, London

Current job: Owner and founder of Olivo & Oliveto 

One word that best describes how you work: hard

My role model: My uncle

My biggest fear: Opening Olivo in the middle of a recession in 1990  

Something I love: Cigars and good food and wine

Something I hate: Bureaucracy

First of all, tell us a little about your background and how you got to where you are today

I was born in Sardinia, Italy and came to London in 1977, hoping to learn English in six months with an ambition to study architecture. I decided to become a restauranteur when I fell in love with the city but saw the quality of food in London could be improved and saw a huge opportunity to bring Sardinian cuisine over here.

Do you believe that import Sardinian delicacy has been the winning idea for your business success?

Yes, I think that it definitely helps my business to be more competitive and gives us a deeper and genuine identity.

Which restaurant was the first and how you managed to expand your chain to six places, becoming a point of reference for your local community?

In 1990 I opened Olivo and quickly established a local and loyal clientele. Following its success and have kept all the funds in the company we were able to expand the business to three more restaurants, a delicatessen and gelateria. I had the long-sighted view of creating a small but compact business that is manageable and allows me to get to know our regulars and what they want.

Tell us about a moment when you knew that it was all worth the hard work. 

After opening Olivomare 10 years ago which was the third restaurant to open.

How did you adjust your business in this unusual time?

From day one we set up a well-organised takeaway operation with Deliveroo as well as deliveries to locals that allowed us to keep in touch.

What do you think will be the next big thing in the hospitality sector?

I reply with a question: What is the next small thing?

If you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently?

Nothing.

How do you recharge? What do you do when you want to forget about work?

I have a house in Sardinia where I go to when I get the chance to take a week off and like to spend time with my wife and family relaxing and gardening.

Last but not least, what is the best Olivo’s dish we can now order on Deliveroo?

Any one of our Pizza’s from Oliveto made from 100% Sardinian ingredients.

You can follow Olivo on Instagram here 

We love to interview #WORLDCHANGERS and listen about their challenges and their achievements. We can help you analyze your Google Analytics data, in order to understand where your visits come from, who are your users and which are the most visited pages, providing bespoke reports on a specific period. After this deep analysis,  we can support you to optimize your Brand Strategy to reach your business goals.