In evidenza

Food and Retail HistoryHistory of EsselungaHistory of ItalyHistory of the Caprotti and Venosta familiesIn the spotlight 2Local History

Esselunga: from 1957 to the early 1990s, as recalled by a ‘grocer’s son’

Esselunga’s origins are linked to the history of the city of Milan
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Food and Retail HistoryHistory of EsselungaHistory of ItalyHistory of the Caprotti and Venosta familiesIn the spotlight 2Local History

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

The Caprotti story begins with Antonio del fu Giovanni Battista (1685). The family's origins lie in agriculture and textiles, until 2009 when, partly due to a sharp drop in orders, the company's top management decided to close the Manifattura after more than 179 years of activity. In the meantime, the Caprotti family took part in the founding of Esselunga in 1957
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Food and Retail HistoryHistory of EsselungaHistory of ItalyHistory of the Caprotti and Venosta familiesIn the spotlight 2

Guido Caprotti (1929- 2012), co-founder of Esselunga and GS (now part of the Carrefour group)

It was thanks to the friendship between Guido Caprotti and Marco Brunelli that Esselunga and the GS supermarket chain (now part of the Carrefour group) were founded
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Collaborations / ProjectsFood and Retail HistoryHistory of EsselungaHistory of the Caprotti and Venosta familiesPeople, Environment & CulturePress & Events

Giuseppe Caprotti: ‘From trolleys to history, the luck of living more lives’

What will we read about in your new book? 'I tell another side of the family through two extraordinary explorers: my eponymous ancestor Giuseppe Caprotti, who lived thirty years in Yemen, and my great uncle Gianni Albertini, a skier and mountaineer who explored the North Pole'.
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Food and Retail HistoryHistory of EsselungaHistory of ItalyHistory of the Caprotti and Venosta familiesMarketing News ad Analysis

King Kullen: why the first US supermarket was at the forefront of global distribution

Italian, French and British retailers have drawn inspiration and lessons from their American counterparts. And the chain that opened its first supermarket 96 years ago is still family-owned: in June, King Kullen appointed its first female president, Tracey Cullen, the founder’s great-granddaughter
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Marketing News ad Analysis

Lidl: ‘Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket’?

Well done to Lidl for managing to make a name for itself for something I personally haven’t noticed: that the German discount chain is a high-quality supermarket
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Food and Retail HistoryMarketing News ad AnalysisPeople, Environment & Culture

Organic farming is on the rise: what are its benefits?

Looking at the long term, there is a clear trend towards the gradual consolidation of organic produce in Italians’ shopping baskets: in 2016, it accounted for 8.4 per cent of the total volume of fruit and vegetables, whilst by 2025 this share will reach 12.2 per cent – the highest level in the series under consideration
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Food and Retail HistoryGeopolitics and HistoryMarketing News ad AnalysisPeople, Environment & Culture

Super El Niño and its impact on food supplies

What is worrying is not that cereal production is falling (-2 per cent), but rather that – in August – there was a sharp rise in prices: the FAO global food price index rose to 133.3 points, an increase of 1.9 per cent in just one month and 2.5 per cent compared with a year ago
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Food and Retail HistoryMarketing News ad Analysis

The whisky crisis is rocking Scotland. A glut of unsold stock and distilleries on the brink of bankruptcy

Diageo and Pernod Ricard together control more than half the market and have the resources needed to weather the crisis. Independent producers are far more vulnerable; indeed, according to Duncan McFadzean of Noble & Co, up to a quarter of Scotland’s approximately 160 distilleries could end up being put up for sale
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284
Translated articles of Le Ossa dei Caprotti
Read the latest, 16/09/2026
952
Quick Takes
Read the latest, 20/09/2026
451
Translated articles

"Le ossa dei Caprotti"
(Caprotti’s bones)

From Garibaldi to the CIA and Esselunga, a meticulously documented saga of the family that reshaped Italian habits forever. Published by Feltrinelli, 2023.

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Peppino and Peppino Caprotti: America’s uncles and the Marshall Plan

In 1893, Lucie Amélie Kampmann, one of the sisters of my great-grandmother Fernande – the mother of my grandmother Marianne Maire Caprotti – married Julian Ellinger, who was born in Baltimore, and moved with him to the United States. Their son Alfred, my grandmother’s cousin, would be instrumental in securing Marshall Plan funds for the Caprotti factory.

The Caprotti family and animals: Teo, 1970s

They do good, animals, they save from many things. This is why one of the projects of the Guido Venosta Foundation, named after my maternal grandfather and which I chair, financed the Fondazione Progetto Arca onlus, which was able to purchase a 500 square metre farmstead in the Baggio district of Milan to start up ‘Cascina Vita Nova – Giorgina Venosta’, to be inaugurated in 2021, an important reception project for homeless people with dogs, usually rejected by other institutions and never abandoned by their ‘humans’.

Guido Venosta – military service

After graduating from high school, my grandfather Guido Venosta fulfilled his military obligation. Wanting to join the cavalry, he attended the officer school in Pinerolo, then was assigned to the Savoia Cavalry, where he developed the great passion for riding that would accompany him throughout his life.

Characters

From textiles to the first Italian supermarkets, the Caprotti family’s story is made of people whose legacy goes beyond family ties mirroring the profound changes that shaped our country.

Beppo Caprotti

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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Quick Takes

Brief notes, research highlights and previews

Articles about
Geopolitics and History

Giuseppe Caprotti earned his degree in Contemporary History at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1986. His thesis, devoted to the political, economic and historical dynamics of South Tyrol, was later translated and published in three editions by Franco Angeli Editore.

Why the Russian economy is in serious trouble

Donald Trump could have dealt the final blow in the war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia and brought it down. All the conditions were in place, but he decided instead to remain ‘Our man in Washington’: Trump in the hands of the Russians

The Esselunga brand: its beginnings and development up to 2003

In 1995, we are also able to achieve profitability for all our products and categories with industrial accounting: this allows us to better target contracts, through buyers and sales in supermarkets, with the help of the marketing department. The three functions – purchasing, marketing and sales – are fundamental to the implementation and profitability of the company’s brand, whose operating result, from the 1990s to the early 2000s, is multiplied by 2.5

The creation of the Marketing and Communications Department: a revolution at Esselunga

In 1994, I managed to secure another, hugely significant victory. After endless discussions with our father about the need to set up a marketing department, I finally managed to convince him… My father’s decision was ratified on 13 October. I was put in charge of marketing and communications

Eataly: the losses incurred by the Fico Eataly World food park and the ‘simplified procedure’ loan

The story of Eataly from 2020 to the present day, including the latest developments in Verona and Bologna

Brazil’s chaos and the billionaire twins, the ‘bresaola lords’ and owners of the meat giant JBS

Brazil is the fourth-largest polluter (CO₂ producer) in the world.

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 emergence of private-label products in Italy: the influence of Nelson Rockefeller’s managers on Esselunga

One of the key strategies – within the supermarket – was undoubtedly that of the own-brand range

Mercosur: why the suspension of Brazilian beef imports makes sense

The world’s largest meat producer is called JBS; it is Brazilian and is completely unreliable. The rules governing the import of animal proteins from Brazil should be carefully reassessed

Articles about
Marketing

For over three decades, Giuseppe Caprotti has been active in large-scale retail as a manager, entrepreneur and consultant. A true pioneer in his field, he anticipated key trends such as loyalty programs, the promotion of organic products, the introduction of the first social responsibility report in 2003, and the early development of e-commerce.

It’s not just Nutella: through a mega-merger, Giovanni Ferrero has set up a new group in Belgium

The two Ferreros are pursuing parallel strategies with the aim of doubling the market presence of the world’s third-largest confectionery group – after Mars and Mondelez – within a few years

The best olive oil on the supermarket shelf is 100 per cent Italian

An interesting survey of leading brands. And in Spain, the world’s leading producer of olive oil, the Andalusian cooperative Dcoop has denounced widespread fraud in Spain concerning refined olive oils. According to the stark accusation, in some cases these are mixed with lower-quality oils such as pomace and sunflower oils

The best packaged ice creams: the supermarket croissants ranking

The inventor of the 'walking' ice cream was Italo Marchioni, a native of the province of Belluno and resident of New York, who invented a wafer that could hold ice cream on 13 December 1903

The best pasta on sale in the supermarket in 2023 according to Altroconsumo

The Best of the Test label goes to Barilla's bronze spaghetti in the 400 gram packet. Also on the podium is Italiamo pasta, sold in LIDL supermarkets. For them second place ahead of Armando Lo Spaghetto. The palm for Best Purchase goes instead to the penne rigate of Sgambaro Pio. At the back we find Carrefour's Classic spaghetti, Conad's bronze-drawn penne rigate and spaghetti from the brand Le Stagioni d'Italia.

How to recognise the 6 essential characteristics of a quality pasta

Colour, surface, uniformity, odour, starch release and baking are the characteristics to be assessed

But is Lidl a discount store or a supermarket?

Lidl’s marketing would have us believe that it is a supermarket. It is not, and we explain why. Furthermore, the slogan ‘eat fresh’ used by Lidl to market itself to Europeans is somewhat misleading, and Lidl cannot be an ‘ambassador of Made in Italy’ if it sells pasta made from foreign wheat as ‘Italian’

Walmart: one million drone deliveries

In the future, in Europe too, the agri-food sector and trade will play an increasingly important geopolitical role, with technology playing a central part

The best fish to eat in summer aren’t the ones everyone buys

The ‘mass’ market is increasingly focused on ready-made products, but if you have a trusted local fishmonger who offers something other than the ‘usual salmon’, you can eat better. This benefits both our health and the sea.

Lidl: ‘Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket’?

Well done to Lidl for managing to make a name for itself for something I personally haven’t noticed: that the German discount chain is a high-quality supermarket

Pasta made from 100 per cent Italian wheat: according to the Ministry of Agriculture, it is safer and healthier. But is that true?

Before making an advert about Italian pasta – is it healthier and safer? – we should have tried to protect Italian farmers and consumers

Articles about
People, Environment & Culture

Giuseppe Caprotti is president of the Guido Venosta Foundation, which promotes social, health and cultural projects. Throughout his career, he has been deeply committed to environmental protection issues.

Giuseppe Caprotti’s social commitment to Esselunga. People and Solidarity

Giuseppe Caprotti’s social commitment to Esselunga. The people: Esselunga’s Employees

Giuseppe Caprotti’s social commitment at Esselunga: caring for the environment, for people

JBS, the Brazilian meat giant, is set to benefit from the treaty between Europe and Mercosur

Great attention should be paid to safeguard clauses and reciprocity agreements, but the EU-Mercosur agreement should not be held up as a scapegoat against which to vent one’s frustration at problems in the sector that actually have an entirely different cause: first and foremost, the low profitability of the agricultural sector compared with the rest of the economy

Is there a solution for the food we import from countries that use pesticides banned in Europe?

The Mercosur free trade agreement could be an opportunity to try to align the rules between South America and the European Union. Trade unions, such as Coldiretti, should not dissipate their forces on meaningless projects such as the no to 'cultured meat' or the production of dried pasta, and focus on reciprocity of import standards

The government punishes organic and promotes wine

Do we put a spoke in the wheels of organic food, encouraging the ingestion of pesticides, and promote wine, the abuse of which is carcinogenic? More attention to the health of citizens would not hurt.

The River Po is facing a severe water crisis, putting one-third of Italy’s agri-food sector at risk

The situation on the River Po once again highlights the urgent need to implement a National Reservoir Plan – a network of multifunctional reservoirs equipped with pumping systems capable of generating hydroelectric power

Fish and shellfish farmed in Italy

Some species, such as turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) and bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), are remarkable. Fortunately, plans to farm octopuses have been averted

Behind the mixed fried seafood platter served in restaurants lie, more often than not, imported, industrially processed, frozen and pre-fried squid and octopus

The real problem is not the frozen food itself – which can be excellent if it is of good quality – but the lack of transparency on the part of restaurants