INDEX
Introduction by Guido, LUCA AND PAOLO Barilla................................................................5 The Italian Food Company. Since 1877.................................................................................................13 A family writes the history of a great company........................................................................17 good for you, sustainable for the planet the Barilla way of OPERATING ...............................................27 The “know how”: the Barilla products from the field to the table ..............................31 Communication at the service of people and communities ................................................................................35
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Let’s move forward, move forward with courage Introduction by G u i d o , l u c a AND P a o l o B a r i l l a
T
he title we chose for this introduction is the last message our father left us before leaving us. In order to continually move forward and look to the future, we first need to be aware of our history, that is, of the concept of doing business across four generations. This history is characterized by a few clear concepts. Ours is an Italian family company that offers quality products which promote the well-being of the people and communities in the countries in which they are sold. This approach, today defined as “sustainable” by many, for us has simply always been the way in which we run our business.
There are some great paradoxes in the field of nutrition and food production, for example, that today we are still witnessing the plight of over a billion undernourished or malnourished people, while another billion suffer from excess of food. It is vital for both us and our employees to remain aware of these paradoxes and reflect on them as we think of and design the Barilla of the future. Through the years we have always strived to best interpret and define, in our way of operating and in our products, an evolving concept of quality. While nowadays availability, taste and safety are still basic qualitative requirements for any food product, we persistently aim to improve the nutritional and environmental benefits of our products and of our operations. Because when it comes to food and nutrition, everything revolves around the concept of well-being of the People we provide for and of the Planet hosting us. Our work has always been characterized by the desire to constantly improve our knowledge and expertise. This is what we ask of each of our employees: to make constant progress on the job bequeathed to us by our fathers and that we will in turn hand over to our children, if possible improving it little by little every day, each using his/her own skills and responsibilities. This is the essence of our work. And all of it sits within
We are proud of our past, but at the same time we are aware that we must always look forward. Our future holds great opportunities but also great responsibilities. For decades, companies have been run with quantitative growth - made up of volumes, market share and profits - as their only point of reference. Today this vision is anachronistic, and no longer realistic; and while the value of what is “produced” and how it is “produced” is regaining its proper significance and we are finally beginning to talk about concepts such as value and sobriety, the only certainty we have is that the future is uncertain and that complexity is a constant factor of any socio-economic scenario.
We consider the company’s position not as a personal privilege, but as a responsibility for the transmission of a heritage built up of skills and knowledge that must be nurtured over time and passed down through the generations to come.
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a long and complex food network, with Barilla at the centre, that starts from the farm and fields of raw materials, and goes on a journey consisting of transportation, quality control research, production and processing, packaging, communication and distribution. The result of all this is to end up “simply” on the tables of our customers, to whom we want to offer through our products daily moments of taste and conviviality. Our Family’s commitment is to our company and people, with their skills and their passion, and to be united and focused on translating our specialised knowledge into innovative ideas, products and successes.
the world has been overrun by complex financial engineering, we must remain more faithful than ever to our mission: to produce tangible goods which people want. If we are able to listen to and understand the consumer, the value that we will be able to generate for them will continue to be our Company’s strength.
In these difficult and unstable times, in an era of unprecedented social and economic uncertainty when
GUIDO BARILLA
LUCA BARILLA
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PAOLO BARILLA
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Let’s mo pietro BARILLA T H E F OUND E R
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riccardo BARILLA T H E I NDU S TR I AL I
ove forward, move 11
Z AT I ON
pietro BARILLA T H E V I S I ON
ve forward with co luca12 BARILLA NO W ADAY S
paolo BARILLA NO W ADAY
ourage
ADAY S
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guido BARILLA NO W ADAY S
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THE ITALIAN FOOD COMPANY S I NC E 1 8 7 7
B
arilla is one of the leading Italian food groups, a leader in the markets for pasta worldwide, for ready-made sauces in Europe, for bakery products in Italy and for crisp breads in Scandinavia. For almost 140 years the Company has been run by a family that now, under the leadership of the brothers Guido, Luca and Paolo, has reached its fourth generation.
Its results, and its way of achieving these, have made Barilla one of the most highly-regarded food companies in the world and a symbol of Italian expertise. Its competitive position is the result of a long-term vision based on an industrial - and not exclusively financial - logic, that has allowed it to grow steadily and surely in time and earned it the reputation of a Company capable of managing reference supply chains: from the field to the plate, from the raw material to the point of sale.
With a hand in all the product categories that are at the heart of the Mediterranean nutritional model, Barilla creates products for everyday consumption, searching for excellence in taste and paying constant attention to nutritional balance.
Managing these processes involves the continuous and proactive monitoring of supply chains. This systematic approach utilizes technological skills built from centuries of experience. However, the industrial processing of raw materials through efficient and highly productive machinery capable of generating high quality standards would not be sufficient to ensure the success of lasting competitiveness. The real essential constant is the ability to generate high added-value innovation for the enjoyment of people and families all over the world.
Barilla’s turnover is generated in the area of the Italian first course (pasta and ready-made sauces) and bakery products (biscuits, bakery products, cakes, snacks, soft breads, crispbreads, and cereals). The Group employs over 13,000 people and owns 41 production sites. Barilla owns 15 brands. Every year its factories produce 2.3 million tons of products, under the brands of Barilla, Mulino Bianco, Voiello, Pavesi, Gran Cereale, Pan di Stelle, Wasa, Harry’s (France and Russia), Lieken Urkorn and Golden Toast (Germany), Academia Barilla, Misko (Greece), Filiz (Turkey), Yemina and Vesta (Mexico). Over one thousand products, matching different moments of everyday consumption, are distributed to 100 countries.
In ever more complex economic and social contexts, in uncertain scenarios which are difficult to predict, Barilla wants to play an active role in building the future by interpreting and anticipating change. True to its long-term approach and relying, as always, on the courage, passion and skills of its employees, Barilla believes that its growth
OUR VISION We help people live better, by bringing well-being and the joy of eating INTO THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES.
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OUR VALUES Intellectual curiosity, passion, trust, integrity, courage
Barilla’s corporate responsibility is expressed in the context of overall sustainability of the system, with strategies aimed at realizing production processes, products and results that focus on the well-being of people and the protection of the environment.
must increasingly take place alongside that of civil society, harmonizing the interests of the company with those of the general public.
OUR MISSION Since 1877, Barilla is the Italian Family Company that believes food is a joyful convivial experience, is taste, is a form of sharing and caring. Barilla offers delightful and safe products at a great value. Barilla believes in Italian nutritional model, that puts together superior quality ingredients and simple recipes creating unique five-senses experiences. Sense of belonging, courage, and intellectual curiosity inspire our behaviors and characterize our people. Barilla has always linked its development to people’s wellbeing and to the communities in which it operates.
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Feed others as you would feed your own children. pietro BARILLA
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A FAMILY W R I T E S T H E H I S TORY O F A G R E AT CO M P ANY
B
arilla was born in 1877, the year in which Pietro Barilla opened a small bread and pasta shop.
A common, unified graphic appeared on all packaging. Success was immediate. The company became market leader in Italy for both egg and semolina pasta.
From that moment the history of the company, for almost a century, ran parallel to that of the history of pasta, the consumption of which began to spread across all social strata.
The economic boom of the Sixties opened up a new growth phase: Barilla entered the bakery products sector and inaugurated its first factory for the production of breadsticks and crackers in Rubbiano, near Parma.
In 1910, the new factory was inaugurated and the operation that until then had been merely artisanal first took on an industrial bent.
In 1968, the new factory in Pedrignano, just outside Parma, was built: the most modern pasta factory in the world, with a surface area of one and a half million square meters and one hundred and twenty meters of production line. The beginning of the Seventies brought difficulties for Barilla. In an unstable social climate beset by conflict and marked by dramatic terrorist attacks, belief in Italy’s growth and development seemed to waver. Many entrepreneurs drew pessimistic conclusions from this and decided to reduce or suspend their commitment to industry. Among the latter were those who, in January 1971, sold a majority stake in Barilla to the American multinational Grace, which would keep control of it until 1979. In 1973, the year in which the Voiello Pasta Factory in Torre Annunziata and Saef in Caserta were acquired, the oil crisis and the blocking of the price of pasta imposed by the Italian government led the company to diversify its production and create a new line of bakery products. This was inaugurated in 1975 under the name of “Mulino Bianco”. The brand, initially limited to biscuits, was gradually extended to snacks, cakes and breads. In 1979, unexpectedly, Pietro Barilla bought back the company from the Americans and took his place once again at its helm.
After the premature death in 1919 of one of Pietro’s sons, Gualtiero, his brother Riccardo Barilla worked for over twenty years on expanding the factory through the introduction of innovative technologies and machinery. In 1936, Pietro Barilla (1913-1993), Riccardo’s son, entered the company to manage the commercial side of the business, which he reshaped through an intense sales drive, reaching beyond the Italian region in which the company was born, Emilia Romagna. At the end of the Second World War, the Barillas faced the Reconstruction period. After the death of Riccardo Barilla in 1947, leadership passed to Pietro Barilla and his brother Gianni, and the new strategy was that of enhancing the company’s image and the Barilla brand. This was achieved through major technological investments that significantly increased the quality of products and was supported by massive advertising campaigns. All the different pasta products, which up to that time had been sold in bulk, were now packaged up individually.
“Where there’s Barilla, there’s home”. Where there’s Barilla, anywhere in the world, there is Italy, there is family, there is community.
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nal project dedicated to the development and promotion of Italian regional gastronomic culture. In 2005, the Barilla Laboratory for Knowledge, a training and research centre, and the Barilla Corporate University, began operating. At the same time, Barilla continues its intense dialogue with the scientific world, through engaging with international centers of excellence involved in the fields of nutrition, agronomy, production technologies but also, more generally, involved in the debate of environmental, social and cultural issues related to food and nutrition.
He relaunched the pasta line, with investments in new plants and in advertising. But above all, it was his enthusiasm, spreading to all of the company’s employees that provided a new development perspective. The turnover increased tenfold in ten years. Barilla began its journey as an international company and the number of factories increased from 5 to 25, while employees grew from 2,000 to 8,500. The slogan in pasta advertising says it all: “Where there’s Barilla, there’s home”. Where there’s Barilla, anywhere in the world, there is Italy, there is family, there is community.
The people who buy Barilla products every day, who give their trust to the Company every day, are increasingly seen as the company’s partners. It is to this audience that Barilla addresses its campaigns focused on critical consumption, aimed at increasing people’s awareness of the choices they have among different purchase options.
When Pietro passed away on September 16, 1993, the presidency of the company passed to the elder son, Guido, with Luca and Paolo becoming Vice-Presidents. In 1994, the year in which the acquisition of the Pavesi company was completed, the Barilla of the future was redefined: a long-term strategy was introduced, which placed an emphasis on the importance of the product as a means of relating to people, internationalism, creation and knowledge sharing. The indispensable tools of this strategy are very strict protection and monitoring of the raw materials and long-term supply chain partnerships. 2004 saw the launch of Academia Barilla, an internatio-
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THE BARILLA ADVENTURE STARTS The Barilla story begins in 1877 with Pietro Barilla, in a bread and pasta shop in the centre of Parma.
1877 The b egi n n i n gs
R I CCARDO AT T H E H E L M O F BAR I LLA
1910
THE FIRST FACTORY OPENED In the early years of the 20th century, the founder was succeeded by his sons Riccardo and Gualtiero. The first factory opened, employing 100 workers and producing 80,000kg of pasta a day, and in the same year Barilla registered its first trademark: a little boy cracking an egg yolk into a flour trough. After the death of his father and brother, Riccardo Barilla steered the company’s growth in the Twenties and Thirties. In 1936, Pietro, Riccardo’s son, entered the company and began developing its commercial network.
“I started working when I was thirteen
“In the history of our company there are
“Profit is the funda
years old. My father would send me with
many stages, many episodes, many events
economic life, but
our handcart to fetch a few sacks of
that remain and that are like the steps of
realized and for s
flour, which were then transformed into
a staircase. Its dominant trait, however,
maintained there m
bread in our old small brick oven. After
is the pioneering generation before
values, and we mu
a few years, in a small shop, with the help
which I always bow with great devotion,
what past generat
of my sisters and my mother who worked
admiration and gratitude.”
to us and that is w
at the counter, we sold the bread that my father and I produced by working for up to 18 hours a day.” Ri c c a r d o B a r i l l a
P ie t r o B a r i l l a
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their memory. In do
youth of today to
be aware of our c P ie t r o B a r i l l a
GIANNI AND PIETRO AT THE HELM OF THE COMPANY After Riccardo Barilla’s death
1971
in 1947, his sons Pietro and Gianni took the reins of the company, developing modern production systems and engaging in intense
BAR I LLA B E CO M E S A M E R I CAN
business communication and advertising activities.
1947
P O S T W ORLD W AR I I Y E AR S
THE AMERICAN INTERLUDE
BAR I LLA I TAL I AN L E AD E R
In 1971, the Barilla family sold the company to the American firm Grace.
1958 70 MINA SINGS TONIGHT!! In the early Sixties, Barilla became a Limited Company. It had 1,300 employees and 200 salespeople. In 1965, Barilla entered the packaged bakery products market for the first time, with the production of breadsticks and crackers. In 1969, the Pedrignano (Parma) factory was built, the largest pasta production plant in the world, with a production capacity of 1,000 tons a day
ndamental ingredient of
“It is my belief that the three
“During those years, I was really unhappy,
characteristics of a businessman are
for a number of reasons, and everything
social harmony to be
courage, intuition, and optimism. I think
was going wrong for me… Who knows why
must be moral rules and
that the entrepreneur has an important
everything was going wrong… I was a man
role to play no matter what his field. But
who was suffering for different reasons,
the food sector has a specific role, I would
but the most important one was that I
call it a deeper and more challenging one,
had abandoned the “ship” that had been
because food goes out to everyone: to
entrusted to me and on which I had sailed
o understand history and
children, to the elderly, to families. Food
until the age of 58...”
common roots.”
has this sensitivity, this importance for the
in order for it to be
ust respect them. This is
tions have handed down
why it is our duty to honor
oing so, we will help the
health of people.” P ie t r o B a r i l l a
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P ie t r o B a r i l l a
1979 93 T H E R E TURN O F P I E TRO BAR I LLA
MULINO BIANCO IS CREATED 1975 saw the launch of Mulino Bianco, a new bakery products line, including biscuits, bread substitutes and snacks, characterized by authenticity and recipes with natural ingredients, using the experience Barilla has gained in centuries of cereal processing.
THE RELAUNCH In 1979, Pietro Barilla returned to the helm of the company. The historic re-acquisition coincided
1975
with the resumption of a long-term industrial and advertising strategy, based on the idea of re-launching pasta and
T H E M UL I NO B I ANCO E RA B E G I N S
the Italian first course and developing the offer of bakery products.
G U I DO , LUCA AND P AOLO AT T H E H E L M O F T H E CO M P ANY In 1993, after the death of Pietro Barilla, leadership of the company passed into the hands of his sons Guido, Luca and Paolo.
“The brand must be able to build
“The return was not easy. Meetings, obstacles,
“I don’t think that my child
relationships, not just transactions, with
finance, money, trips: New York, Zurich... As
opinion of me, I like to th
consumers; and our future is dependent on
I wished my children to be witnesses of this
and respect me; that the
our continuing to creatively renew the
adventure, they came along on many of these
that this transmission of
way we compete.”
trips. At the end of 1978 I did not have the
father to children is in effe
amount needed. In front of the leaders of
can be realized. The goal
Grace I was so disappointed that I cried. One of
for the family to contin
them, Mr Graff – an excellent man – understood
generation, which means
my predicament and called me aside in his office
company’s life. Then the nex
Guido Barilla
and said to me: “Don’t lose heart, we’ll see what
will provide… if it will p
we can do...” It was the end of 1978 and in July
succession…”
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1979 we managed to close the deal.” P ie t r o B a r i l l a
P ie t r o B a r i l l a
TODAY
2010 CREATION OF THE BARILLA CENTER FOR FOOD AND NUTRITION
2000
The year 2009 saw the launch of the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, a multidisciplinary centre committed to the
BAR I LLA I NT E RNAT I ONAL CO M P ANY
promotion and debate of topics related to food and nutrition.
IMPORTANT ACQUISITIONS The Nineties and the first decade of the new millennium were characterized by a strong internationalization process, with the growth of Barilla’s presence in European and US markets, the opening of new production plants and the acquisition of important brands such as Pavesi (Italy), Misko (Greece), Filiz (Turkey), Wasa (Sweden), Yemina and Vesta (Mexico), Lieken (Germany) and Harry’s (France).
ildren have a bad
“We will become ever more global and
“The Italian nutritional model is the essential
ready to face the future by developing our
point of reference for healthy eating
y believe in me and
performance in relation to the consumer;
habits, for the respect and protection of
f experiences from
not by pursUing a simple and traditional
the natural resources of our Planet and
effect a truth that
increase in size, but by adapting our
for safeguarding the rights of future
al is succession,
culture of quality and our professionalism
generations.”
inue for another
to ever faster changes of scenario.”
hink that they trust
eans 30-40 years in the
next generation
provide… for the
Guido Barilla
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G u i d o , L u c a AND P a o l o B a r i l l a
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good for you, sustainable for the planet t he B a r i l l a w a y o f o pe r a t i n g
I
n 2006, Barilla won the Reputation Institute Award (New York, USA) as the company with the best reputation in the world. Among the elements of this recognition of the company’s value are some key traits: first all that of being a family - and an Italian company. To this is added a corporate culture that nowadays often falls under the term “sustainability”.
This is why it is committed to managing the company by constantly improving processes, minimizing environmental impact and enhancing its contribution to local areas and to the communities in which it operates. This commitment is transmitted to the products, which offer People not just high quality and nutritionally balanced food, but also, and above all, the opportunity of choosing, through their food choices, behaviors that contribute to a sustainable social and environmental development.
Barilla believes that providing its own products to fifty million people who buy them every day, in over one hundred countries around the world, involves a sense of duty and the need to contribute to building the wellbeing of the company, the people and the planet not just for today, but for tomorrow as well.
This is “social business” activity which is based on concrete behaviors and on a constant effort for transparency, information and education dedicated to the People the company serves and the territories in which it operates.
In order to contribute to the well-being of people and the planet we must first of all develop and share a vision of the future that aims to solve some great paradoxes relating to food and nutrition at both a local and global level. The dialectic between access to food and excess of food in different parts of the world; the dilemma of animal nutrition which runs the risk of taking agricultural resources away from human nutrition; the conflict between food consumption and energy consumption of certain raw materials: these are all examples of issues where knowledge sharing is essential in order to find common solutions. Barilla has decided to take part in the debate on these issues and to integrate the search for solutions into the daily work of the people in its company.
THE Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition The Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition (www.barillacfn. com) (BCFN) is a multidisciplinary center involved in the sharing of knowledge on the issues of food and nutrition, and which makes use of the most advanced experiences and skills available worldwide. The center concentrates on four areas of research: Food for Health, Food for Sustainable Growth, Food for All, Food for Culture. The results are made available to decision makers, but
“We can’t stop the evolution of the planet, but we have a moral duty to suggest guidelines and proposals for interacting responsibly with it” GUIDO BARILLA
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THE DOUBLE PYRAMID
also, and especially, to public opinion in the broadest sense, in order to guide collective and individual choices towards a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle. This dissemination process takes place through the publication of reports and the regular organization of online and physical events, among which is the International Forum on Food and Nutrition, with participation from experts and scholars from around the world. The scientific committee, consisting of seven international experts in different and synergistic scientific disciplines, is the supervising body for the BCFN: it identifies topics of interest, validates scientific content, and makes recommendations and proposals. The strategic and operational choices that Barilla makes as a company also derive from the BFCN’s conceptual and scenario planning.
tion of new ones. Barilla bases an ever wider and more varied range of products on the Nutritional Guidelines of the Nutrition Advisory Board, in accordance with the “Double Pyramid”, thus ensuring for the company an enduring ability to innovate. Improving the nutritional quality of products and introducing new ones increases Barilla’s competitive position and, at the same time, allows people to choose what to eat in relation to their well-being and that of the environment and future generations. While most products produced by the Barilla brands located in the Pyramid areas have an overall lighter environmental impact on the planet, this does not exempt the company from working to monitor and reduce the ecological footprint of the production processes. The same reasoning applies to the supply chain: the double pyramid encourages a very wide consumption of agricultural products, which for Barilla translates into a stimulus to strengthen its relationship with the territory from which these products come. Supplying the company through an integrated process means not only ensuring greater control on production quality but also moving towards a price stabilization that often determines its capacity for investment - if not the survival - of the producers, as well as contributing to the well-being of the territory through the creation of jobs and opportunities for people.
From research to action: the Double Food and Environmental Pyramid One of the BCFN’s most original pieces of work has been the representation of the so-called “double pyramid”, which allows people to put together their diet with full awareness of the impacts that their evaluations and choices have on their well-being and that of the planet. The double pyramid also indicates to the company which actions to take, as it stimulates better production, the reformulation of existing products and the inven-
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I have never even conceived of a non-sustainable company. There is no other way to do business outside of sustainability. And it is a sustainability linked to work, to the management of plants, of purchasing, of the whole process. guido BARILLA
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the “know-how” t he b a r i l l a p r o d u c t s f r o m t he fie l d t o t he t a b l e
B
arilla has a product portfolio of over 1000 products that cover all moments of daily consumption, from breakfast to dinner.
where Barilla works out agreements with the producers that enable optimization of variety selection, seed multiplication, and protocols for crop cultivation and rotation. This strict interaction with producers also makes it possible to program and limit the use of water and fertilizers, directly leading to lower greenhouse gases. Long-term partnerships also ensure the qualitative improvement of wheat from the point of view of quality planning and safety.
Starting with the raw materials, protection must be total, in order to ensure quality, safety, nutritional properties, the ability to innovate by following the evolution of social trends, service to the people who buy the products and to the distribution customers who market them, and economic, social and environmental sustainability.
This makes it possible to work in the local area, thus shortening the food supply chains: over 81% of the durum wheat used for the various Barilla Group brands is grown locally, that is, in the country where the pasta is produced.
Barilla purchases about 800 raw materials and 50 packaging materials from 1,200 suppliers worldwide. This translates to, for example, 1,400,000 tons of durum wheat, 1,300,000 tons of soft wheat and rye, 130 thousand tons of tomatoes, 700 million eggs. Barilla’s so-called integrated supply chain model, in contrast to the traditional linear structure, with its succession of “cascading” chain supply operators, is of a circular type, so as to involve different actors in long-term strategic partnership projects. The company works alongside the suppliers in each production phase. One example is that of the durum wheat supply chain,
The egg supply chain is another strategic one for Barilla. By working with its suppliers it is able to achieve full planning of farming methods, including feed management and planning, with special emphasis on the wellbeing of the animals. About 85% of laying hens are free range. The eggs used for the production of Mulino Bianco and Pavesi bakery products, as well as Le Emiliane egg pasta, come from free range chickens.
“To contribute every day to people’s health and well-being through our products, by transforming high quality ingredients into safe, healthy products that answer both basic and specific nutritional requirements, offering good and practical suggestions for daily use inspired by the balanced and healthy Mediterranean diet.” THE NUTRITIONAL MANIFESTO
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world. All this would not matter if at the end of this path the product did not have nutritional characteristics which promote people’s health. Barilla offers tasty and practical products, for daily consumption, that are part of a healthy nutritional model, and whose prices are accessible. It constantly reformulates its own products, particularly reducing the content of fats and salt and increasing the amount of fiber, and it creates new products with specific benefits and high health value.
Production processes protect to the utmost extent the integrity, naturalness and nutritional characteristics of the ingredients. This is the result of 56 dedicated technologies, many of which were developed for specific uses, such as the recent introduction of steam cooking ovens for bakery products. The high quality system, whose protection is guaranteed by about 200 professionals responsible for over 2 million analyses a year, enables the control and verification of production standards until the product reaches the shelves of supermarkets and shops, anywhere in the
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In business you live by plans. You live imagining the future. Everything is done for the future. pietro BARILLA
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FROM COMMUNICATION TO DIALOGUE wi t h pe o p l e a n d s o c ie t y
B
arilla’s way of being, operating and contributing to the well-being of people and of the planet also coincides with a constant search for an ever more comprehensive, all-encompassing concept of quality, which includes the product, the way of producing it and offering it to people, and of contributing to the well-being of individuals and of society as a whole, for this generation and those to come.
In Italy, Barilla has been a pioneer in business advertising, characterized by a coherent blend of emotional and rational aspects that have been received by people in a positive way. The style of the messages has been key to extending a promise of quality and reliability to be adhered to by its products. Through its products and packaging, the company communicates about itself and answers society’s demand for transparency. It also informs and trains, inviting people to adopt a healthy diet. As well as listing ingredients, the packaging shows the recommended consumption amounts, nutritional profile, advice about the times of consumption, directions on how to make the product at home or suggestions for recipes that combine taste and health.
This evolution in the concept of the quality of company products is mirrored by a change in expectations that people have in companies. First, people want to be informed in order to maintain their trust in companies: the demand for transparency is strong and constantly evolving. Secondly, companies are no longer expected to just communicate what they are doing, but also who they are and what they stand for. The need for transparency becomes the need to perceive the company’s walls as permeable, open to the consumer, who can enter and learn in order to make a choice.
The digital communication channels of the different brands have been strengthened in order to highlight their specific characteristics and make it possible for people to establish interactive relationships through a series of applications accessible through the computer and telephone. The Mulino Bianco Tour is a food education project launched in 2009 to inform and educate Italians about a proper and healthy diet. In the course of two years it has involved over 500,000 people in 80 Italian piazzas. Casa Barilla spreads an understanding of the pleasure of good Italian cuisine through seminars, practical lessons with chefs and entertaining events, such as coo-
Finally, companies considered worthy of trust are chosen on the basis of their ability to do more than just offering their products and “opening themselves up” to people. They are expected to take on the task of providing information, education and support to knowledge that in the past was expected of them only to a much lesser extent.
Today, however, we must go beyond traditional information and promotional channels and ways of addressing the consumer, in order to be open to initiatives which further engage people.
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live, online), further expression of the company’s commitment in this direction have been experiences involving, among others, the world of school and education, and which have been consolidated through time. In over ten years, Giocampus has become a true laboratory for excellence, capable of producing scientificallyvalidated nutritional and lifestyle messages for schools, that Barilla makes available to the communities in which it operates.
king competitions and tastings of different recipes. Ahead of the market, Barilla uses new technologies as in the case of the smartphone and tablet application iPasta, which has had hundreds of thousands of installations. In conclusion, Barilla feels it is its duty to communicate with people, independently of any ties to its brands and products. As well as the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition institute (whose main events have also been broadcast
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The most exciting challenge facing our company is the ability to continually improve in all of our activities. What is at stake is the sustainability of our growth, our future, the future of our children. GUIDO, LUCA AND PAOLO BARILLA
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(a)
(b)
a. COVER PHOTO: Julian Schnabel (1951-), Di che pasta sei fatto [Photo Barilla employees], 2009. Mixed media on wood, cm 235x415 (Barilla Modern Art Collection, n. 641). b. PHOTO PAGES 20-21 PHOTO FROM HISTORICAL BARILLA ARCHIVE, BARILLA EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS 1923, PARMA IN THE FOREGROUND AT THE CENTER OF THE PHOTO RICCARDO BARILLA AND THE SONS PIETRO AND GIANNI
EDITED BY COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT BARILLA PHOTOGRAPHY STEFANO ZARDINI AND ARCHIVIO BARILLA GRAPHICS ADFARMANDCHICAS EDITORIAL COORDINATION CODICE PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY LITHO ART NEW PRINTING GRAFART
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