On the cover: ‘The egg is glorified in a marble fountain on the Arbor Acres farm in Aprilia, Italy’ (Photograph taken from W.J. Broehl, The International Basic Economy Corporation (…), 1968.).Unpublished photo
Nelson Rockefeller did not only own theEsselunga in Italy . He also had a company, in Aprilia, that produced eggs.
“The result of having four full-size shops, each with good sales, appeared when the final balance sheet figures came out the following year: in 1960 the company had a net income of more than $200,000 in total.
What had happened? Firstly, the horizontal growth itself had generated such economies of scale as to enable the operation of an efficient central warehouse, a realistic allocation of administrative overheads and the purchase of quantities of goods at favourable prices. Secondly, vertical integration was achieved.
IBEC joined with another US company, Arbor Acres, to create a large poultry farm with processing plant; previously, almost three quarters of the eggs consumed in Italy were imported (…).” (p. 54).
Unpublished note:
Arbor Acres Farm took over ‘Città dei Polli’ in 1961, founded in the early 1950s by Roman entrepreneur Armando Zaccardi. ‘Built thanks to contributions from the Cassa del Mezzogiorno, it was considered the largest poultry farm in Europe (…) built on State Road 148 (…).
Now only a few abandoned structures remain, a residential area has sprung up in the area. Everything was state-of-the-art with incubation rooms, packaging departments, state-of-the-art warehouses, guarantees of hygiene and professionalism. Zaccardi hired Indian technicians and specialised labour, and was able to produce 3,000 chickens a day. The markets in Rome and Milan were reached by the holds of modern refrigerated lorries with the chickens wrapped in cellophane bags. The housewives were a bit wary at that time (*), they preferred what [they] considered a free-range chicken,
In 1957 the company went into crisis, a sharp drop in demand led to closure. The Cassa del Mezzogiorno had promised a further 350 million in funding, the payment order was issued when the lonely cement cocks adorning the entrance basins were left.’ (P. IANNUCCELLI, Aprilia, La Città dei Polli, in https://www.news-24.it, 5/11/2020).
Once the farm was taken over, Arbor Acres turned it into a laying hen farm, with about 250,000 chicks hatching per day (see P. NENCINI, Frammenti di Aprilia sparita (…), Aprilia 2013, p. 25).
(*) Note the analogy with Esselunga ‘s early customers on packaged meat: customers accepted it unwillingly.
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Below:
Extracts from the book P. NENCINI, Frammenti di Aprilia sparita (…), Aprilia 2013.
P. IANNUCCELLI, Aprilia, La Città dei Polli.
L’uovo di Aprilia oggi, from Il viaggio pontino di Stefano Orlando, Facebook page, 3 August 2020.
