Made in Italy: 12 painfully brand (s) sold to foreigners

2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20

♬ "Where is my share? - Ah, I already sold it - the company that the pope created in Rome. We shake the check - we are ready to surrender - we are already outstretched - China called ". ♬

The Made in Italy food more and more often ends up in foreign hands, the updated Mameli anthem could sound more or less like this. Since 2008 the (un) sales of home (and shop) jewels can no longer be counted on the fingers of the hands.

And they feed the debate between those who interpret them as a signal of interest in Italy and those who instead consider them as a sign of weakness in Italian entrepreneurship.

In some cases there was little to be done, patriotism had to give way to necessity. In others it was simply a question of opportunity.

We have selected the top 12 sales of recent years, there is no doubt that for some companies the catchphrase "An offer that cannot be refused" sounds mocking today with respect to growth prospects.

And in any case, don't chew too much bitterness: whoever sold it was then consoled.

12. PIZZA: PizzaBo

It is the first example of how successful start-ups also pass into foreign hands. We are talking about the Mark Zuckemberg de noantri, local to the point of changing their lives with pizza.

In 2009, freshly graduated Christian Sarcuni and Livio Linfranchi invented the PizzaBo platform.

It would have been the usual service to have the baby food ready at home with a click, if it were not for the device that allows restaurants belonging to the circuit to print the receipt when the customer orders, making everything more practical.

Less than a year ago it was sold to the Germans of Rocket internet (those of Zalando, Dalani and CityDeal) for a record amount, while for two months it has belonged to Just Eat, the well-known home delivery service. Just Eat has decided to move all employees to Milan from Bologna, effectively opening the first trade union dispute of a (former) start-up.

11. SWEETS: Pernigotti

From the Piedmontese founders (the original factory is in Novi Ligure, which for the all-Italian habit of complicating things is found in Piedmont) it passes in 1995 to the Sicilians of Averna, those of the amaro.

Then abroad.

In 2013 Pernigotti, the Italian confectionery company, the one that until 2004 had the royal coat of arms next to the logo (a concession of King Umberto I), has new owners, this time Turkish, who as everyone knows are large producers of hazelnuts. Stefano Pernigotti & Son "since 1868" belongs today to the Toksöz group, Istanbul.

Result? Pay attention to it, on the label the spreadable cream screams "Made in Italy" but the hazelnuts come from Turkey.

10. ICE CREAM: Grom

Storytelling as if it were raining, first cries blessed by Carlin Petrini, father of Slow Food and sales with a bang (millionaire) at Univeler, who knows how to sell ice creams having Algida in his carnet (Cucciolone, Magnum, Solero and Carte d'Or). Paraphrasing Grom's most famous taste, let's say it “As it once was”: pecunia non olet.

Since 2015, the Anglo-Dutch multinational has owned everything about Grom: logos, shops, history, books and even the debts they suggested to Guido Martinetti and Federico Grom to sell.

Staying within the scope, in Rome the sale of the glorious Fassi brand, that of Palazzo del Freddo, next to Piazza Vittorio, to the Koreans of Haitai Confectionery and Foods Co.

9. BEER: Birra del Borgo

We have talked about it extensively. In two weeks, the news of the sale of Birra del Borgo, (formerly) microbrewery founded by Leonardo di Vincenzo in Borgorose, sold to the multinational beer company Ab InBev, has caused the world of hops to be discussed.

Everyone had their say, from the homebrewer who had not updated the Facebook profile for a long time to the big names in the sector such as Teo Musso from Baladin. And it seems that the artisans of Italian beer want to strenuously resist the lure of the industrial giants.

The role of the villain in this story belongs to Ab Inbev, the Belgian-Brazilian company that owns brands such as Corona, the same company that bought Peroni last year, before selling it to the Japanese Asahi in exchange for 2.55 billion euros.

8. PASTA and RICE: Garofalo and Scotti

For a couple of years, Dr. Scotti, with the sale of 25% of the company to Ebro Foods - who paid 18 million for his dose of Pavia rice - speaks fluent Spanish.

Also they, the Spaniards from Ebro, then got their hands on Garofal, who appears among the 56 “nuestras marcas” of the company website. It was 2014 when the ancient Gragnano pasta factory sold 52% of the shares.

7. ALCOHOLIC: Stock 84

Distillates and liqueurs that since 1884 take their name from the founder of the company, Lionello Stock from Trieste.

However, the brand was sold, first in 1995 to the Germans of Eckes and then in 2007 to the private equity fund Oakree Capital Managemet, which incorporates everything.

In 2012, with a bad joke at the beginning of April, the American fund made cuts without hesitation until the total closure of the Trieste plant.

The production of Stock 84 brandy, Limoncé and Keglevich vodka is moved to the Czech Republic.

6. ARTISAN CHOCOLATE: Amedei

The change of hands between Italy and China involving the Pisan Chocolate Valley was passed over in silence.

A wound still open: not even a year ago, the precious Chuao and Porcelana cocoa bars tested in a famous tasting test by Dissapore passed to the Octopus Holdings Foundation, a company based in Singapore.

The sale of the majority stake was motivated by artisanal chocolate with the desire to invest in research & development and focus on exports. A desire for expansion expressed through the collaboration with Sammontana already in 2014.

5. BIO: Fattorie Scaldasole

One of the first champions of Italian organic, also engaged in biodynamic agriculture. Famous for yogurt and similar products, the Brianza-based Fattorie Scaldasole company is also dedicated to freshly squeezed juices and over-the-counter desserts.

It passed first to the multinational Heinz, that of Ketchup and Plasmon biscuits, then in 2005 to the French giant Andros, specialized in the sale of jams with the packaging of grandma Bonne Maman.

4. WINE: Chianti classico

What do you want two million euros to be for a Chinese entrepreneur. Which comes from pharmaceuticals, moreover.

With eight hectares of purchased land, farm and farmhouse annexed, Hong Kong takes possession of the Casanova-La Ripintura farm and instigates its countrymen into a Black Friday-style shopping in Chianti (the Friday after Thaksgiving, when in the United States the shops they sell at deep discounts).

As confirmed by the then president of the Chianti Classico Consortium, Davide Gaeta: "We receive letters of interest from China every day".

Months later, a compatriot of You Yi Zhu buys the Poggio Romita company in Tavarnelle Val di Pesa: 30 hectares of vineyards, 10 of which are guaranteed by the Black Rooster. Can you imagine Chinese investors at the Consortium meetings?

3. PASTRY: Cova Milano

Sweets and luxury: a combination that has become inseparable. After a fight for the latest relaunch with Prada, the panettone that belonged to Giovanni Cova and Agostino Panigada, a pastry shop in the annexed Via Montenapo, went to what is the multinational of luxury: Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy.

In 2013, the French company of champagne and ultra-premium bags acquired the majority stake in the historic Milanese pastry shop. But as long as the Faccioli family is present in the share capital and in the company management, panetùn will not become a Frenchism.

2. SPARKLING WINES: Gancia

The first Italian sparkling wine was born in the "underground cathedrals" of Castello Gancia, in Canelli (AT). It was 1850. Much later, from those same cellars dug into the tuff, the candidacy for Unesco Heritage of the hills of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato would start.

If we say Piedmont and you automatically think of wine it is also thanks to Carlo Gancia. Today the brand he founded can be found on the internet under the domain Russianstandard.com.

In 2013, the "czar of vodka" Roustam Tariko reached 95% of the quotas.

1. SAUSAGES: Salumificio Rigamonti (Bresaola della Valtellina)

It is well known that the well-known Protected Geographical Indication of Valtellina is produced with (zebu) meat from Brazil and Argentina.

But Rigamonti bresaola now only has its origin from Valtellina.

In 2011, the Brazilian multinational JBS added the remaining 30% to 70% of the shares held in Sondrio since 2009. Now the sole owner of the Lombard brand, the Montagna plant, deemed obsolete, closes in no time at all.