The Caprotti family between Albiate and Macherio: from manufacturing to retail
Not everyone is probably aware that one of Caprotti’s factories has become an Esselunga Superstore
My uncle Guido and the attempt to save the Caprotti factory
In an attempt to save the company from the textile crisis of the 1970s, Guido Caprotti gradually sold off his entire stake in Esselunga, before being forced to sell off the textile business as well.Caught up in the same family dispute, his mother Marianne also saw her inherited share wiped out, without warning or any compensation whatsoever.
The Caprotti Manufactory: fabrics were stories, the forerunners of marketing
For over a century, the Caprotti factory in Albiate was a place of work, identity and memory. Its logo – the goat – and the names of its fabrics evoked strength and prestige: Leone, Vittoria, Cleopatra. Others linked the product to Italy’s geographical identity, such as Calabria and Tevere. Still others, such as Jolanda and Marina, followed the fashion of the time, or current events, such as Tosca, linked to Puccini’s opera.
Is the Caprotti factory due to be demolished?
Dear Dr Caprotti, I was saddened to hear of the forthcoming demolition of the factory in Ponte, which your father set out to build and to which he devoted a significant part of his life. It is undoubtedly a place that, for many people, has meant much more than simply a ‘place of work’: it has been a professional and social hub, a place to meet and forge new bonds. It has certainly been a source of hope for a better future, both for oneself and for one’s family…
Caprotti Factory: the factory that was also a home
In the past, factory owners usually lived on the factory premises. This was also the case with the Caprotti family, who, before purchasing the villa in Albiate at the end of the nineteenth century, lived in the villa within the factory complex, which still stands today, although it is almost completely overgrown.
The story of the family that created the Esselunga myth
After years of meticulous research and historical reconstruction, my new book Le Ossa dei Caprotti is out. At the centre of the narrative, the events of my family from the textile business at the beginning of the 19th century to the birth and development of Esselunga, debunking myths and legends
In the midst of the book market turmoil, the Hoepli family business goes into liquidation
When there is so much animosity, stepping aside is difficult. Not least because in a company there is history and identity, family but also individual.
Easy to say with hindsight, but a compromise, to the detriment of individuals, to save the company, is always desirable.
The Albiate bridge and Mayor Peppino Caprotti
In the early 1950s, the 19th-century bridge in Albiate, built at the time of carts and wagons, was now inadequate for modern vehicle traffic and too low to withstand the flooding of the Lambro. The municipal council led by Peppino Caprotti, my grandfather, who was elected mayor in the summer of 1951, began to deal with it, because in that very year the Lambro was still overflowing. During his brief period at the head of the Albiatese municipal administration (he died in a car accident the following year), Peppino had time to lay the foundations for the important project to rebuild the bridge.
Peppino Caprotti, Alberto Sartoris and the school and family chapel projects in Albiate
After the First World War, Albiate underwent a phase of great transformation and in 1929 inaugurated the new town hall, destined to serve as town hall, school and clinic, also as a memorial to the 60 fallen and missing in the town. The building was realised thanks to a collective subscription and the contribution of several benefactor families, including the Caprotti family. In the archives of Villa San Valerio emerges the correspondence between my grandfather Peppino Caprotti and the architect Alberto Sartoris, who was commissioned to design both the building and the family chapel in the Albiate cemetery.
Peppino Caprotti – Final tragedy, honours to the Mayor
In June 1952, grandfather Peppino died in a car accident while returning from a deer hunt in Austria. Peppino had been elected mayor of Albiate only a year earlier. A few days later, the whole town attended the mayor's funeral. Peppino was also remembered in the first of the annual pamphlets that the municipal administration published at the end of each of its terms. The story of Peppino and his family has always intersected with that of his village, and in "Le Ossa dei Caprotti" I have narrated it.
Caprotti, cars, drivers and my birth certificate
Automobiles soon entered Caprotti's life, from the very first still with tyres that were not dyed black, and with them the drivers: Giannetto, more than a century ago, and then 'el Gigèt' and 'el Silvèt', whom I also knew and who were even witnesses in my birth certificate.
