Food and Retail History History of Esselunga History of the Caprotti and Venosta families

ESD Italia – Efficiency and Services for Distribution, 2001

Marcello Cestaro, who heads one of the groups that make up Selex, jokingly describes our merger as that between ‘the beauty’ – that is, Esselunga, probably the ‘most beautiful’ chain in Europe – and ‘the beast’, namely Selex…From them, however, we learn a huge lesson in humility: the beast, in fact, helps the beauty enormously to understand the market and double its profitability

History of Italy History of the Caprotti and Venosta families Local History

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.

History of the Caprotti and Venosta families

Giorgina Venosta’s friends: Silvia Tofanelli, in memory of Lina Sotis

The story of Silvia and Filippo, who made the whole of Milan dream: the charming Silvia Tofanelli, with her host of suitors, met Filippo Rusca, the most eccentric of his time, when the ‘ganzi’ were all the rage. They fell in love, got together, left their other partners behind, became the talk of Milan’s high society, and got married. They were a happy couple. He has passed away; this is how she remembers him. We, who saw them as the most beautiful couple of their time.

History of Esselunga History of the Caprotti and Venosta families Local History

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…

History of the Caprotti and Venosta families

Giuseppe Caprotti and his studies: Paris and the significance of research

Do I want to spend long days surrounded by books and archive documents, on my own, seeing hardly anyone? Or do I want to work, engaging with the real world every day? The answer would come years later; I would have enjoyed teaching. But even the outcome of my experience ‘in the real world’, as Kundera writes, will not have been ‘a dream’: Esselunga was a great passion of mine; I enjoyed myself and, to use an Anglicism, I did ‘good things’.

History of the Caprotti and Venosta families

The Caprotti family’s friends: Andrea Solbiati, the sportsman

Andrea Solbiati (1928–2014), heir to another Lombard textile dynasty, a great tennis player and a passionate football fan with a deep-rooted loyalty to AC Milan, was the man who introduced me to my childhood idols, starting with Gianni Rivera. In the late 1980s, together with Federico Castelbarco Albani, he founded the ‘Clubino’ football team, for which I played for more than 10 years. I still have the football books Andrea gave me, and they are particularly dear to me, just as he was – and still is.

History of the Caprotti and Venosta families

My mother’s friends, Giorgina Venosta: Lina Sotis and Silvia Tofanelli

The first photograph comes from a series taken at Lina’s second bachelorette party, in November 1993, on the eve of her marriage to Marco Romano, an event that Sotis herself also recalled with nostalgia in an interview for ‘il Giornale’ in April 2015: ‘Yes, it was nice. Readings, music, beautiful. There was Natalia Aspesi, Inge Feltrinelli, Rosellina Archinto, Stella Pende, Gioia Marchi Falck , Mita De Benedetti, Antonella Camerana, Giorgina Venosta…’.