Casa Barilla
 | |
| Type | Public company |
|---|---|
| Traded as |
NAX: CBAR NASX 100 component |
| Industry | Food processing |
| Founded | 1739 AN in Punta Santiago |
| Founder(s) | Ottavio Barilla |
| Headquarters |
Punta Santiago,  Nouvelle Alexandrie |
| Area served | Nouvelle Alexandrie, Vegno |
| Key people |
|
| Products | Dried pasta, egg pasta, semolina |
| Services | Shipping, retail, restaurants |
| Revenue | NAX€21 billion (1759 AN) |
| Operating income | NAX€2.9 billion (1759 AN) |
| Net income | NAX€1.9 billion (1759 AN) |
| Owner(s) | Barilla family (about 58%) |
| Employees | 71,000 (1759 AN) |
| Divisions |
|
Casa Barilla is a food company based in Punta Santiago and the largest maker of pasta in Nouvelle Alexandrie. Ottavio Barilla, a pasta maker from the Vegnese city of Scanzata, incorporated it in 1739 AN from the egg-pasta shop he had kept since his arrival in 1716 AN. The company grows its own durum wheat, mills it, makes and ships the pasta, and sells it through its own shops and restaurants. Its best-known product is La Grassa, a premium dried egg pasta.
The Barilla family holds about 58 percent of the shares. The rest have traded on the Nouvelle Alexandrie Stock Exchange since 1744 AN, and the company belongs to the NASX 100 index. Ottavio Barilla handed day-to-day management to his daughter, Shirley Barilla, in 1752 AN and has chaired the board since. The company has a long rivalry with Kerularios & Company, which squeezed its shipments between 1742 AN and 1744 AN and whose subsidiary holds the Barilla trademark in Vegno.
History
Shop and incorporation
Ottavio Barilla opened his shop in Punta Santiago in 1716 AN, after his family in Scanzata disinherited him for wanting to mechanize their workshop. For two decades it sold fresh tagliatelle and filled pastas in the Scanzata style. The shop grew into a company once Vegno entered the Concord Alliance Treaty Organization in 1738 AN, the year of King Sinchi Roca II's state visit, and Vegnese brands found a wide market in Nouvelle Alexandrie. Barilla brought over millers and pasta makers from Vegno, began making dried pasta on an industrial scale, and registered the business as Casa Barilla in 1739 AN.
Its first product line, La Grassa, took its name from Scanzata's nickname. The company priced it above the supermarket pasta of Agrifoods and other packaged-food makers, and it held a large share of the premium market before 1750 AN.
Freight dispute and Flotta Barilla
Casa Barilla at first shipped through outside carriers, chiefly Kerularios & Company, the biggest privately owned shipping group in Nouvelle Alexandrie. In the Port Wars of 1742 Kerularios & Company suspended its talks with New Alexandrian ports on 30.VIII.1742 AN and kept Casa Barilla cargoes waiting in port. Higher freight rates and canceled sailings followed until 1744 AN, under the direction of Maximinus Lahaye Kerularios, then the group's chief operating officer.
Casa Barilla answered in 1744 AN by founding Flotta Barilla, its own shipping line. To buy the first ships it sold a minority of its shares on the Nouvelle Alexandrie Stock Exchange, while the family kept control.
Vertical integration
Before 1752 AN the company bought durum estates in the Santander highlands, which it grouped as Tenuta Altopiano, and built semolina mills to supply its factories. It also opened its own shops, Botteghe Barilla, and restaurants, Trattoria Scanzata.
Under Shirley Barilla
In 1752 AN Ottavio Barilla handed the chief executive's post to his daughter, Shirley, and moved up to chairman. Her elder brother, Matteo, stayed at the head of Flotta Barilla. Kerularios & Company also gained a new chief executive, Maximinus Lahaye Kerularios, in XI.1752 AN, and The Aldurian called the pairing the "duel of the heirs".
Shirley Barilla presents the cooking program La Tavola di Shirley on the Culinary Network and appears in the company's advertising. By 1759 AN annual revenue had reached about NAX€21 billion, with a workforce of about 71,000. Under the Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760, the Treasury sets a basket of essential food and household energy taxed at a reduced rate. Casa Barilla pressed for dried pasta to be added to it, and the Treasury did so in IX.1760 AN.
Operations
Tenuta Altopiano grows durum wheat in the Santander highlands, above the lowland grain farms of Granjas Santander. The wheat is ground in four semolina mills and made into pasta at nine factories, whose packing machinery comes from manufacturers in Scanzata.
Flotta Barilla has about 30 ships. They load Santander grain at the Port of Jirishanca for the mills and take finished pasta to ports in Nouvelle Alexandrie and abroad, which reduces the company's reliance on Kerularios freight.
The company runs about 400 Botteghe Barilla shops and about 150 Trattoria Scanzata restaurants. The restaurants serve Scanzata dishes such as tagliatelle with ragù, and both chains stock Santa Rina cheeses, including its aged Cormorant Selection.
La Grassa, a dried egg pasta, is the flagship line, and the company also uses Shirley Barilla's first name as a brand. United Foods of Ransenar, a Kerularios & Company subsidiary, bought the Barilla name in Vegno from the family's Scanzata workshop in 1741 AN, so in Vegno Casa Barilla sells only as La Grassa.
Market position
Casa Barilla's main commercial rival is Kerularios & Company, a much larger group whose food and shipping interests include Superabundant-Kerularios Logistics, its joint venture with Superabundance Foods, and United Foods of Ransenar.
