This page traces the stories of figures who marked the history of the Caprotti family. From their roots in the textile industry, with the Manifattura that proudly bore their name, to the pioneering creation of the first supermarkets in Italy, their journey left an imprint that reached far beyond family boundaries. It is a legacy interwoven with the broader economic and social transformations that shaped modern Italy.
Beppo Caprotti
(1837-1895)
Giuseppe, known as “Beppo,” my great-great-grandfather, was the eldest son of Bernardo, founder of the company “Bernardo Caprotti di Giuseppe,” which became the cornerstone of the first truly industrial textile manufacturing enterprise. Working first alongside his younger brother Carlo and later on his own, he launched an ambitious program of mechanization and expansion that transformed Caprotti into one of the most modern textile companies in Italy.
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Carlo Caprotti
(1845-1926)
Carlo, the son of Bernardo — founder of the company Bernardo Caprotti di Giuseppe — contributed from a young age to the growth of the business, traveling abroad to study and purchase machinery. He married a woman from Zurich and, after parting ways with his brother Giuseppe “Beppo,” moved to Bergamo, where he became a successful cotton industrialist.
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Giuseppe Caprotti, esploratore
(1862-1919)
He set out for distant lands, establishing himself as a prominent figure in commerce and diplomacy in Arabia. For 34 years he lived in Yemen, the only resident Westerner at the time, trading in valuable goods such as the prized Arabica coffee. After the First World War, he returned to Italy, where his life came to an end.
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Nardo Caprotti
(1868-1928)
The son of Beppo, he succeeded his father at the helm of Manifattura Caprotti and served as Mayor of Albiate from 1896 to 1907. He married his cousin Bettina Caprotti, with whom he had three children — Carolina, Silvia, and Peppino. Deeply committed to social progress, in 1905 he co-founded the Mutual Aid Society for Workers, Artisans, and Farmers of Albiate, Triuggio, Sovico, and neighboring towns, and in 1920 established the Mutual Consumer Cooperative of Ponte Albiate, which still operates today under the Coop brand, managing four supermarkets.
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Peppino Caprotti
(1898-1952)
Son of Bernardo and Bettina Caprotti, he succeeded his father in leading the Manifattura Caprotti—profits from which later made the Esselunga venture possible. He married Marianne Maire, with whom he had three sons: Bernardo, Guido, and Claudio.
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Marianne Maire Caprotti
(1906-1983)
Daughter of Georges Maire and Fernande Kampmann, she was born in France, where she met Peppino Caprotti during his study stay in her hometown, later following him to Albiate. The couple had three children — Bernardo, Guido, and Claudio. Thanks to her American cousin, Alfred M. Ellinger, son of her aunt Lucie Kampmann, she helped the Manifattura Caprotti secure Marshall Plan funding, which revitalized the company’s fortunes in the postwar years.
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Guido Caprotti
(1929-2012)
Co-founder of GS and Esselunga, he also served as CEO of the Manifattura Caprotti. He married Lu Austoni, with whom he had two daughters, Benedetta and Elisabetta.
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Claudio Caprotti
(1938-2026)
Son of Peppino and Marianne Maire, he was a shareholder of Esselunga and manager of the Florence branch. He learned the trade in the United States at A&P in Philadelphia and at Colonial Stores in Atlanta. He married Paola Albera, with whom he had two sons, Fabrizio and Andrea.
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Bernardo Caprotti detto Bernardino
(1925-2016)
Son of Peppino and Marianne Maire, thanks to his brother Guido he became a partner in Supermarkets Italiani, which opened the first supermarket in Italy. He first married Giorgina Venosta, with whom he had two children, Giuseppe and Violetta, and later Giuliana Albera, with whom he had Marina Sylvia.
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Nelson Rockefeller
(1908-1979)
An American tycoon and politician, he founded IBEC, the company through which he entered Italy. Together with local partners — including Marco Brunelli and Bernardo and Guido Caprotti — he opened in Milan, in 1957, the first Italian supermarket, which would later become Esselunga.
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James H. Angleton
(1889-1973)
An agent of the U.S. Counterintelligence Service within the OSS — the forerunner of the CIA — before and during the Second World War, he was the man entrusted by American tycoon Nelson Rockefeller with a key mission: to assess whether it would be possible to bring to Italy, through the IBEC corporation, the model of American-style economic and social prosperity embodied by the supermarket.
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Gianni Albertini
(1902-1978)
An engineer by training, as well as an alpinist, explorer, and pioneer of flight, in 1929 he led a bold expedition to rescue the missing crew of Umberto Nobile’s ill-fated airship Italia, which had crashed near the North Pole the previous year.
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Marco Brunelli
(1927-)
He was the first President of Esselunga. Through his connection with J. H. Angleton, who acted on behalf of Nelson Rockefeller, he brought together partners interested in opening supermarkets in Italy. He involved Guido and Bernardo Caprotti, and in 1957 opened the country’s first supermarket in Milan.
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Giorgina Venosta
(1940-2021)
An art expert, consultant, and entrepreneur, she was the daughter of Guido Venosta and Luisa Quintavalle. She was first married to Bernardo Caprotti and later to Aldo Bassetti. From her first marriage she had two children, Giuseppe and Violetta.
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Aldo Bassetti
(1926-2022)
Coming from one of Lombardy’s great textile families, he was an enlightened and courageous entrepreneur, active across many fields — from publishing, as one of the key backers of L’Espresso and a co-founder of La Repubblica, to the distribution of Coca-Cola in Italy. He later expanded the family’s long-standing brewing business with remarkable success. He was the second husband of Giorgina Venosta, formerly married to Bernardo Caprotti.
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Umberto Quintavalle
(1887-1959)
An engineer and passionate mountain sportsman, he led the Magneti Marelli company for over three decades together with his brother Bruno Antonio. He married Adele Portaluppi and had three children: Ferruccio, and the twin daughters Ida — who married the explorer Gianni Albertini — and Luisa, mother of Giorgina Venosta.
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Luisa Quintavalle
(1920-2009)
Daughter of Umberto and Adele Portaluppi, a cultured woman and a leading figure in Milan’s fashion scene, she first married Guido Venosta, with whom she had two children, Giorgina and Giuseppe (Beppe), and later Niccolò Theodoli, with whom she had a daughter, Diana.
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Guido Venosta
(1911-1998)
Son of Giuseppe, general manager of Pirelli, he too joined the Milan-based company, where he spent his entire professional career. With an entrepreneurial vision well ahead of his time, he brought his managerial experience to AIRC - the Italian Association for Cancer Research, helping to shape its early development. He married Luisa Quintavalle as his first wife, with whom he had two children, Giorgina and Beppe, and later married Carla Fossati Bellani.
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Carla Fossati Bellani Venosta
(1924-2019)
An internationally renowned architect and designer, she married Guido Venosta. After her husband’s death, she established the “European Foundation Guido Venosta. Man Against Cancer”, now known simply as the “Fondazione Guido Venosta”.
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Giuseppe Caprotti
(1960-)
An entrepreneur, historian, and President of the Guido Venosta Foundation, Giuseppe Caprotti held executive positions at Esselunga, ultimately serving as Chief Executive Officer. In April 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, he took on the leadership of the Foundation named after his maternal grandfather, Guido Venosta.
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Violetta Caprotti
(1962-)
Daughter of Bernardo and Giorgina Venosta, she joined Esselunga, where she worked in Purchasing and Marketing. After leaving the company, she turned her attention to philanthropy and today devotes herself to the Foundation that carries her name.
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