My grandfather Giuseppe Caprotti, called Peppino (1889- 1952), the First World War, the textile factory and Esselunga

Compiled 10 December 2011, updated 27 March 2024.

Filippo Viganò, gave me a copy of La Domenica del Corriere which talks about the Alpini and also about my grandfather Giuseppe (known as Peppino).

He was the son of Bernardo Caprotti, founder of two cooperatives in Albiate.

Here are some pictures.

To better understand what we are talking about you can read

Below is the full cover of the magazine from October 1916.

Domenica del Corriere copertina Ottobre 1916

Beautiful this image of the Alpine troops climbing a mountain, again taken from the same magazine (last of copeertina).

My great uncle, Giorgio Venosta, was also an Alpine officer, but in World War II. He did the Russian retreat.

Among those who received the medal for valour was my grandfather, I’ll let you look for him among the many officers, and a few non-commissioned officers, below.

Grandfather was perhaps only a telegraph officer at the time.

Here is a stylised image of my grandfather, Giuseppe Caprotti, known as Peppino.

The only medals of my grandfather that I have left are these below.

More, unfortunately, I do not know.

Medaglie di Giuseppe Caprotti detto Peppino

Below: the 16 pages of the weekly magazine, supplement of the Corriere della Sera, of the week from 1 to 8 October 1916.

The newspaper had been founded in 1885 by the Crespi family , who would later become partners of the Caprotti family in Esselunga.

Suggestive advertisements, especially for improving breasts, curing ‘neurasthenia’ or for ‘weak men’, some are highlighted on the last two pages.

Below: one of his grandfather’s uniforms (1919).

Giuseppe Caprotti detto Peppino mostrine 1

N.B.: his grandfather, many years later, would play a fundamental role in the relaunch of the textile factory and indirectly in the foundation of Esselunga :

1948

With the Marshall Plan, the United States decided to finance Europe in order to meet the costs of its reconstruction, facilitate its economic development and curb the advance of communism.

President Truman, after establishing the ECA and the Erp in April 1948, financed the European economy with USD 17 billion between 1948 and 1952.

Stimulating agricultural and industrial productivity and fostering a process of economic integration among European countries were the main economic objectives.

My grandfather Peppino (Giuseppe), thanks to the help of a relative of the Maire family (**), who had moved to the USA, obtained funding under the Marshall Plan that enabled him to start building a new, ultra-modern textile plant that made Manifattura Caprotti a state-of-the-art company.

1952

Giuseppe dies prematurely in the summer. The management of the textile company passes to his sons, Bernardo 3, Guido and Claudio, to remain first exclusively with Guido, then with Bernardo alone.

1957

Thanks to the profits from the textile business and grandfather Peppino’s financial investments, the Caprottis are able to participate in the foundation of Supermarkets Italiani, later Esselunga.

At the origins, indirectly, of the family fortune is an investment of the profits generated by Manifattura Caprotti in Pirelli shares, thanks to the ‘tips’ of Peppino’s fraternal friend Nando Angeloni.

The episode is described on page 73 of my book Le Ossa dei Caprotti.

The three brothers, with the participation of their mother Marianne Maire in Caprotti, bought the majority of shares in Supermarkets Italianiin the early 1960s , when Nelson Rockefeller decided to retire from Italy.

(**) My grandmother Marianne‘s French family.

Below: a 1947 photo of Giuseppe Caprotti, known as Peppino: it is very likely that my grandfather and Nando Angeloni met in the United States: in this photo Peppino was travelling there by ship and young Nando had worked there for General Electric.

Thanks to Filippo Viganò and Eleonora Sàita