Barilla family
| Origin: |  Scanzata, Vegno
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| Founded: | 1716 AN (in  Alduria)
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| Founder: | Ottavio Barilla |
| Current head: | Ottavio Barilla |
| Seat: | Villa Largoprato, Punta Santiago |
| Branches: | Barilla of Punta Santiago Barilla of Scanzata (estranged) |
| Associated with: | Casa Barilla Federal Humanist Party Fundación Barilla Defensor |
The Barilla family (Vegnian: Famiglia Barilla) is a wealthy family of Vegnese descent in Nouvelle Alexandrie that owns Casa Barilla, the largest pasta maker in the federation. It was founded in Punta Santiago by Ottavio Barilla, a pasta maker from Scanzata whose relatives disinherited him before he emigrated to Alduria in 1716 AN. His wife and partner, Mariana Isabel Defensor, was the daughter of an Aldurian family of lawyers. The branch that stayed in Scanzata later sold the family name in Vegno to a Kerularios subsidiary, but the family in Punta Santiago keeps commercial and community ties to Vegno.
Ottavio Barilla opened a small egg-pasta shop in Punta Santiago and turned it into an industrial company after Vegno joined the Concord Alliance Treaty Organization in 1738 AN. By 1759 AN Casa Barilla owned wheat estates in Santander, its own mills, factories, and shipping line, and a chain of shops and restaurants, and the family held about 58 percent of its shares.
Shirley Barilla, his daughter, has been chief executive since 1752 AN, when her father became chairman and she was chosen over her older brother, Matteo. She presents a television cooking program and hosts the family's annual Semolina Ball. Her private life is closely followed by the celebrity press. The family's rivalry with the Kerularios family of Kerularios & Company dates from a freight dispute between 1742 AN and 1744 AN and now includes competition for influence in the Federal Humanist Party, to which both families donate.
Origins
The Barillas come from Scanzata, the capital of the region of Largoprato in southwest Vegno. The city is nicknamed la grassa for its cooking, rich in egg pasta and cured pork. The family ran the Pastificio Barilla di Scanzata, a workshop that made pasta by hand, including the tagliatelle that Vegnese cooks serve with Scanzata's ragù. Corrado Barilla (born 1689 AN), the elder of two brothers, took over its management as a young man.
His younger brother, Ottavio (born 3.IV.1693 AN), argued for mechanized production. The family refused and disinherited him over the dispute in 1716 AN, and he sailed for Alduria that year. The two branches of the family have had no public contact since. His emigration coincided with the 1716 Vegno Political Scandal, which ended the moderate era that had governed the young republic for a decade. The elections of late 1716 AN then brought the Partito Nazionalista Vegnese to power.
The pastificio stayed small while Vegno's food industry modernized and grew around it. In 1741 AN, short of capital, it sold the Barilla name and its heritage recipes to United Foods of Ransenar, a subsidiary of Kerularios & Company. The workshop belongs to Scanzata's network of cooperatives, whose members criticized the sale for handing the city's best-known pasta name to a foreign shipping house. Corrado Barilla's children now run it, and it still supplies the city's trattorias with tagliatelle and tortellini.
Defensor family
Mariana Isabel Defensor (born 1697 AN) came from a family of lawyers and civic officials in Punta Santiago. The Defensors have long claimed descent from one of the writers of the Essays on Liberty, which began appearing in the press in 1685 AN under the shared pen name "Defensor" in defense of the Proclamation of Punta Santiago. The essays had several authors, and no link between the family and any of them has been documented. The claim remains a family tradition, repeated in Barilla interviews and in the name of the family's charity.
Founding generation
Ottavio Barilla arrived in Punta Santiago in 1716 AN and married Mariana Isabel Defensor the same year. He opened an egg-pasta shop that sold the tagliatelle and filled pastas of Scanzata, while his wife kept its accounts and introduced him to the city's professional and legal circles. The couple had two children: Matteo, born in 1717 AN, and Shirley, born in 1720 AN. Ottavio and Mariana Barilla live at Villa Largoprato in Punta Santiago, which he named for the Vegnese region he left.
Rise of Casa Barilla
Vegno joined the Concord Alliance Treaty Organization during the state visit of King Sinchi Roca II in 1738 AN, and agreements between the two countries followed, among them the Cultural Heritage Protection and Exchange Agreement. Cantorunno lager, Acqua Munnissima mineral water, and the Deliziosa pizza chain all did well in Nouvelle Alexandrie after the visit. Ottavio Barilla recruited Vegnese millers and pasta makers and began industrial production of dried pasta, already a popular food in New Alexandrian cuisine. He incorporated the business as Casa Barilla in 1739 AN. The company's flagship was La Grassa, a dried egg pasta named for the nickname of Scanzata. It was priced above the pasta lines of Agrifoods, an older Santander food company, and took a large share of the premium market within a decade.
Shipping routes to Nouvelle Alexandrie were still shifting after the East Keltian Collapse of 1736 AN to 1741 AN. During the Port Wars of 1742, after Kerularios & Company suspended its negotiations with New Alexandrian ports on 30.VIII.1742 AN, the shipping company also held Casa Barilla cargoes in port. After the crisis ended, Kerularios & Company raised its freight rates on Casa Barilla shipments and canceled several scheduled sailings. These measures, which lasted until 1744 AN, were directed by its chief operating officer, Maximinus Lahaye Kerularios.
Casa Barilla responded by founding its own shipping line, Flotta Barilla, in 1744 AN. To pay for the fleet, the family sold a minority of the company's shares on the Nouvelle Alexandrie Stock Exchange. As of 1759 AN, the family held about 58 percent of Casa Barilla, which is a constituent of the NASX 100 index.
Until 1752 AN Ottavio Barilla led the company as its proprietor and chief executive; that year he became chairman of the board, a post he still holds, and he remains head of the family. By then Casa Barilla controlled each stage of production: the durum wheat of its Tenuta Altopiano estates in the Santander highlands, its own semolina mills and pasta factories, the Flotta Barilla fleet, and a retail chain of Botteghe Barilla shops and Trattoria Scanzata restaurants. In 1759 AN it was the largest pasta maker in Nouvelle Alexandrie, with revenue of about NAX€21 billion and about 71,000 employees.
Second generation
Both of Ottavio Barilla's children hold senior positions at Casa Barilla.
Shirley Barilla
Shirley Mariana Isabelle Barilla Defensor was born in Punta Santiago on 14.IX.1720 AN. Her middle names honor her mother. Casa Barilla uses her first name as a brand name. She became chief executive of Casa Barilla in 1752 AN, the year that Maximinus Lahaye Kerularios became chief executive of Kerularios & Company and George Lahaye Kerularios became its chairman. The Aldurian called the contest between the two new chief executives the "duel of the heirs".
Her program, La Tavola di Shirley, is a cooking and interview show on the Culinary Network, and she appears in the company's advertising. She married the footballer Nicolás Arriaga (born 1716 AN) in 1746 AN. The couple had one daughter, Gianna, and divorced in 1757 AN. Since the divorce, the celebrity tabloid Noticias Incógnito has pursued reports of an unnamed companion.
Matteo Barilla
Matteo "Teo" Barilla Defensor (born 1717 AN) is the elder child and runs Flotta Barilla, the company's shipping line. He was passed over for chief executive in favor of his sister. He married Beatriz Olazábal (born 1719 AN) in 1740 AN, and they have two sons.
Third generation
As of 1760 AN, Ottavio "Tavo" Barilla Olazábal (born 1741 AN), Matteo Barilla's elder son, is the only adult of the third generation. He is named for his grandfather. His brother, Stefano Barilla Olazábal, was born in 1744 AN.
Gianna Arriaga Barilla (born 1747 AN) is Shirley Barilla's only child. Her legal surname places her father's name first, but she is known publicly as Gianna Barilla, a usage her mother encourages and her father has objected to.
Rivalry with the Kerularios family
Flotta Barilla keeps Casa Barilla's cargoes off the Kerularios network. Kerularios & Company has tied some of its shipping business to the food trade through Superabundant-Kerularios Logistics, a joint venture with Superabundance Foods. A Kerularios subsidiary also holds the Barilla name in Vegno (see below).
The Kerularios family has held the title of Marquess of Fontainebleau since 1723 AN, while the Barillas hold no title of nobility. In the press, publications of the Kerularios Publishing Group, including its New Alexandrian arm, Editorial Kerularios, have covered Shirley Barilla's marriage and divorce, and she has criticized their coverage on her program and in interviews.
Public life and politics
The Barillas give the Semolina Ball (Ballo della Semola) each spring at Villa Largoprato, with Shirley Barilla presiding. The ball raises money for the Fundación Barilla Defensor, the family's charity, which funds school meals in Nouvelle Alexandrie.
The family donates to the Federal Humanist Party, which governed the federation from 1739 AN to 1760 AN, under José Manuel Montero from 1749 AN. The Barillas came to the party later than Humanist houses such as the Valkory family, which has supported it since its founding, and the Almagro family, which has given it a premier and ministers across three generations. The Kerularios family is another party donor, and since the party went into opposition under Montero in 1760 AN, the two families have competed to fund its rebuilding.
The Federal Accord government passed the Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760 over the opposition of the Federal Humanists. The Act sets a reduced rate of value added tax on a basket of basic food and domestic energy that the Treasury defines and reviews each year. Casa Barilla lobbied for dried pasta to be included in the basket, a change the Treasury made in IX.1760 AN.
Ties to Vegno
The family's brands and events carry Vegnian names, among them La Grassa, La Tavola di Shirley, and the Ballo della Semola. Casa Barilla buys its packing lines from machinery makers in Scanzata's "packaging valley", and its Botteghe Barilla shops and Trattoria Scanzata restaurants stock cheeses from Santa Rina, made at that company's plant in Scanzata.
Through the Fundación Barilla Defensor, the family supports the Vegnese community of Punta Santiago. Vegno's consul-general in the city is customarily a guest at the Semolina Ball.
In Vegno the Barilla trademark belongs to United Foods of Ransenar, and pasta sold there as Barilla is made by United Foods to the old Scanzata recipes. Casa Barilla sells in Vegno only under its La Grassa brand and holds the Barilla trademark in every other market where it trades.
