The Caprotti family: from textiles – with Manifattura – to Esselunga

The Caprottis became textile entrepreneurs but remained landowners: the two activities were integrated.

At the end of the 19th century, 900 people in the area around Albiate drew their livelihood, totally or partially, from the cultivation of land belonging to the Caprotti family.^[1]

The textile company employed 487 labourers and factory workers. However, 73% of the wage bill was made up of pieceworkers (peasants who worked the land and also cotton yarns).^[1]

[1] See Caprotti (family) on Wikipedia.

Between 1848 and 1861, in the crucial years that saw thepolitical unification of the Peninsula, the Manifattura Caprotti experienced moments of great economic expansion.

1866

Therewere 1,500 workers (p. 86 Romano, op.cit.), in Carate, Albiate, Giussano, Verano, Paina, Seveso and Cabiate.

1867- 1872

Bernardo’s sons, Giuseppe (1837-1895) and Carlo (1845-1926), undertook a large-scale mechanisation project of the company, creating a true industrial plant [2] according to modern criteria and increasing production to such an extent that, in the early 1970s, Caprotti yarns were sold to third parties, who, in turn, resold them.

[2] a centralised factory, in Albiate (Romano, op.cit., page 22), but also one in Macherio where, when the factory was closed, an Esselunga superstore was built in its place.

1872 – 1873

In July, Giuseppe (Beppo) and Carlo (who had long since settled in Switzerland, in Zurich, where he had married Selina Hüber in September 1871), matured the decision to proceed with the separation of the paternal inheritance, which took concrete form in the liquidation of his younger brother’s interest in the company with a deed drawn up in Milan by the notary Girolamo Corridori on 21 January 1873.

At the basis of the separation were probably different views on work, but also the fact that Carlo had married a Protestant woman. Giuseppe (Beppo) did not turn up for the wedding and Carlo, with his Swiss relatives, “does not give up” (Giuseppe’s letter to Giuseppe, from Zurich, 10 September 1871). The two brothers, despite their separation, maintained cordial and respectful relations.

1873

Giuseppe continues with his policy of investment, starting the construction of a vast premises for use as a dyeing plant and continuing the purchase of mechanised looms and increasingly modern and efficient machinery.

1875

On 1 March Carlo Caprotti founded the Carlo Caprotti and Güttinger Companyin Scanzo (BG) with a partner for the mechanical manufacture of coloured cotton and mixed fabrics.

The company’s activities and the figure of Carlo who, on 20 January 1880, officially joined the Evangelical Community and in 1907 was the first president of the Bergamo Textile Industries Federation.

A detailed website of the exhibition Per filo e per segni. Innovation and creativity in the textile industry in Bergamo between the 19th and 21st centuries, held at the Bergamo Museum from 1 March to 7 September 2008, unfortunately no longer available.

There is also a Villa Caprotti in Bergamo.

1892

In May, Giuseppe, who had been suffering for some months from a serious cerebral illness that reduced him to a state of total unconsciousness from which he would not recover until his death, was interdicted by the court and was succeeded in running the company by his sons Bernardo 2 (1868-1928, who, on 15 June 1893, would marry cousin Bettina, daughter of his uncle Carlo (despite the strong disagreements between his father Giuseppe 2 and his uncle), Emilio (1871-1963) and, in a marginal position, Antonio 2 (1869-1899) and Giovanni 3 (1879-1921).

1906

Bernardo (my great-grandfather), in competition with his brother Emilio, co-participates in the establishment of the Società anonima Manifattura di Valle Camonica for the weaving of coloured cotton, with headquarters in Milan, Piazza Castello and factory in Ponte Barcotto in Valle Camonica.

The company had Vittorio Olcese as its major shareholder.

Things would go so badly that the company would be put into liquidation as early as October 1913.

1907

Things went better at Albiate and Bernardo and Emilio, despite the “profound contrast between the two Caprotti brothers” (Roberto Romano, op. cit.), in order to better support their ambitious projects, decided to set up the Cotonificio Caprotti joint-stock company, whose object was cotton spinning, dyeing, the manufacture of coloured fabrics and trade in related industries.

1907 was also the year of a strike (the Ponte Albiate ‘lockout’, Corriere della Sera, May 1907).

1912

The three main partners [3]brambilla, Emilio and Bernardo split up. The first received the Sovico plant, the second the Giussano plant and the third the Albiate plant

1913

Objective market difficulties and disagreements [3] between the shareholders led to the company’s collapse, some creditors began legal proceedings to obtain repayment of their claims and the shares fell from the initial 100 lire to 5 lire.

[3] the Caprottis also had minority shareholders and the directors, including the two brothers, were prosecuted for false accounting (1917-1922).

1923

After the war, the company, which had long existed only on paper, was officially liquidated and the Caprotti brothers went their separate ways.

Emilio, together with his son Alessandro, took over the Giussano factory, which he maintained through the Società Anonima Emilio Caprotti, whose purpose was cotton spinning and dyeing, fabric manufacturing and related industry and trade.

Following the difficulties of the first company, on 25 January 1930 he set up the limited partnership Emilio Caprotti e Figlio (Emilio Caprotti and Son) with the purpose of spinning and dyeing cotton, and anything else related to its manufacture and processing, destined to go bankrupt in 1933 after a long and heavy criminal case [4].

[4] “The Accomandita essentially took over the industrial and commercial operation of the Anonima, which as a result of huge losses suffered due to the crisis in the cotton industry in the years 1927, 1928, 1929 (…) was in a difficult condition (…)”, see Manifattura Caprotti Archive, b. 114, R. Court of Appeal of Milan, Judgement of 27 March 1933 – XI in the criminal proceedings against Comm. Emilio Caprotti, Milan, 1933, p. 2.

Emilio was accused and then acquitted of fraudulent bankruptcy.

Above: the group photo, in Brusimpiano in 1925, from which the cover of this article is taken: Marianne Maire in Caprotti (my grandmother) is the one indicated with the red arrow. The photo was probably taken by Peppino Caprotti ( my grandfather, Giuseppe). On the right in the photo you can see Bernardo Caprotti (my great-grandfather, bald, with a beard).

Date unknown: Bernardo (my great-grandfather) transformed Giuseppe’s Bernardo Caprotti into Manifattura Caprotti, later passed on to his son Giuseppe (1899-1952).

The transition is not so simple: the two do not get along and my grandfather Giuseppe Caprotti, lives and works in Turin several years before returning to Albiate.

1947

My grandfather Peppino (Giuseppe), thanks to the help of his grandmother Marianne’s first cousin, Alfred Ellinger, obtains financing under the Marshall Plan that allows him to start building a new, ultra-modern textile plant that makes the Manifattura a state-of-the-art company.

1952

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

1957

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

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

Claudio Caprotti joined the company in 1961, Bernardo Caprotti arrived in 1965 while Guido Caprotti remained in charge of the Manifattura in Albiate.

1999

The Manifattura and is sold by Bernardo to the Albini brothers, owners of the cotton mill of the same name in Albino (BG), who acquire it as Manifattura di Albiate S.p.A. 1830 (the characteristic fabric of production will be denim).

2009

Due to a sharp drop in orders, the company management decides to close the Manifattura after more than 179 years of activity.

On this subject you can read Benetton: what there was to learn from the experience of Manifattura Caprotti (textile)

Eleonora Sàita and Giuseppe Caprotti