By now launched in business and having achieved a respectable social and economic position, the time came for Beppo to marry. On 21 September 1863, he married Giuseppina Polti di Antonio, a fabric merchant from Lecco and a loyal customer of the Manifattura even after the marriage.
Beppo was the first to receive a broader education than his parents, which had to be limited: in 1851, he left for a Swiss boarding school, the Institut Hüni in Horgen, Canton Zurich, which provided vocational training.
Giuseppe, known as Beppo, is the son of Bernardo, who officially ‘founded’ the company ‘Bernardo Caprotti di Giuseppe’ in 1840, thus transforming an absolutely local reality into a real company, however small.
Esselunga supported social, environmental, cultural and scientific research projects, involving customers with the Fìdaty Card, allowing them to donate points converted into contributions that the company doubled.
“Human resources are ‘the pillar’ on which our success is based and it is stated that teamwork ‘is the basis for achieving results’. This is why, for example, ‘Esselunga encourages its employees to work in groups in which everyone expresses their potential within shared objectives’. Source: Esselunga Social Report 2003
The one related to care and concern for the environment is a project that goes back a long way, to the 1980s, the first years I spent at Esselunga, and began with organic and natural products in general. It is also the project I am most fond of because it had a soul, a social purpose, as well as a business purpose.
How, with the involvement of staff and customers, we went from the quality and convenience of the Americans and my father to ‘total quality’ and a true love affair with Esselunga customers
From payments to new rules, suppliers are seen as key partners in Esselunga’s ‘virtuous circle’ (staff – customer – supplier).
The popularity of coffee consumption in Yemen began in the 15th century and until the end of the 17th century the world’s coffee supply came almost entirely from there. Among the traders dealing in coffee was Giuseppe Caprotti who was in contact with my great-great-grandfather Giuseppe Beppo Caprotti, known as Beppo
Yemen is one of the oldest coffee-growing countries in the world; that is where the highly prized Arabica quality comes from. Giuseppe explorer, who lived in Sanaa for over thirty years, traded large quantities of it, and some of it ended up in Brianza, with his namesake Giuseppe Caprotti, known as Beppo, my great-great-grandfather.
The brothers Luigi and Giuseppe Caprotti were born in a suburb of Besana Brianza (MB) in the mid-19th century. Luigi was the first to arrive in Yemen, settling in the capital Sanaa. Among the very few Westerners resident, he was the first to establish fruitful contacts with the local population, which his brother Giuseppe continued for over 30 years after his death
Giuseppe Caprotti had close contacts with another Giuseppe Caprotti, his exact same name and from Brianza like himself, and who was my great-great-grandfather. He had a great passion for antiquities and exotic objects, especially coins, and generously financed Giuseppe Caprotti to get them for him.
In Giuseppe Caprotti’s relationship with the Jews, a fundamental importance was played by Hermann Burchardt, a young German Jew who “decided to leave the family business and set off on...
During his very long stay in Yemen, Giuseppe gathered an important and very rich collection of manuscripts. A large part of this became part of the collections of the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, making it one of the most valuable and one of the largest collections of its kind in Europe today.
The success of the supermarket in Venezuela prompted Rockefeller to expand the model in South America and then in Europe, starting with Italy. Among the investors were the Caprotti brothers, including my father Bernardo Caprotti and my uncle Guido. In 1957 Supermarkets Italiani, the future Esselunga, was founded in Milan.
In 1947, Rockefeller’s IBEC opened in Venezuela, introducing supermarkets and revolutionising local commerce. The model was then exported to Europe, starting with Italy. With Italian partners such as the Caprotti brothers, the first supermarket, future Esselunga, was founded in Milan in 1957.
Nelson Rockefeller’s love for art originated with his mother Abby, a passionate collector. She shared with her son Michael an interest in primitive art, which led the latter to expeditions to New Guinea. In 1961 Michael disappeared during one of them, possibly the victim of a cannibal tribe.
In 1947, Nelson Rockefeller founded IBEC to improve the economies of less developed countries, starting in Latin America with the introduction of supermarkets. Success prompted him to export the model to Europe, starting in Italy. With local partners, including the Caprotti brothers, he opened the first supermarket, future Esselunga, in Milan in 1957.
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller had a significant impact on American society and international relations in the 20th century. Thanks to IBEC, a company he founded, the supermarket also came to Italy. The future Esselunga – opened in Milan in 1957.
‘The experience in Florence is a great school for me also because the opponent we faced was, at the time, one of the most efficient and competitive: the Unicoop administered and managed by Turiddo Campaini. An aggressive Coop with a strong local policy, efficient and market-oriented. Tuscan products are the norm but there is no shortage of Chinese ones, for the large community distributed between Prato and Campi Bisenzio
Valentin Dumesnil points out the happy and beneficial influence it has in helping to ensure the welfare of a large number of workers in the region. It was the second company to introduce mechanical manufacturing to Italian industry, in 1866
Between 1871 and 1895, the Manufacture won four medals at fairs and exhibitions, including international ones
James Hugh Angleton’s pre-war experience, skills and knowledge made him a valuable asset to American intelligence
James Hugh Angleton is the President of the US Chamber of Commerce in Milan in the 1930s; he knows how to get into the ‘right places’ and manages to build up a network of acquaintances useful for keeping his finger on the pulse of the country’s economic and political situation. He left Italy during the war in September 1941, only to return two years later as a military and intelligence agent. After the war he settled in Rome, where he continued his activities and resumed his position as President of the US Chamber of Commerce, but in the 1960s he returned permanently to his hometown in the US, where he died in 1973.
The life of James Hugh Angleton exemplifies the challenges faced and opportunities grasped by middle-class Americans in the 20th century. Born into a modest family in Illinois, he embodies the American dream of a ‘self-made man’. His life is marked by professional choices that lead him to become a successful entrepreneur and a major player in trade between the United States and Italy, particularly during a period of political turmoil and war. A decorated wartime counter-espionage officer, he perhaps played a key role in the birth of Esselunga.
The entrepreneur who was to become one of the protagonists of large-scale distribution in Italy was born as an antiquarian, and one of the most highly regarded in Milan. His was the organisation of a memorable exhibition at the Villa Reale, in 1955, dedicated to the ‘Venetian 18th century’; among the lenders of the works were the most beautiful names in the city and beyond, including my grandmother Marianne [Maire in Caprotti]. And among the most important art collectors of the period who were also Brunelli’s clients was James Hugh Angleton, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy.
My mother started working out of necessity, after the separation from my father Bernardo Caprotti, who left her nothing. After various experiences, she became an executive at Christie’s auction house in Milan, then founded the company ‘Consulenza d’arte’ as an expert gemologist.
The comparison between Ercole Marelli and Manifattura Caprotti highlights not only the differences in industrial sectors – Marelli, founded in 1899, operates in the electromechanical sector, Caprotti, founded as an industry in 1840, operates in the textile sector -, but also how both represent significant histories of Italian industry, and exploring their stories offers interesting insights into economic and social dynamics in Italy.
Aldo Bassetti’s initiative and energy in the field of art as well, with his long commitment as President of the Amici di Brera from 2007 to 2020 and then as Honorary President until his death in 2021, is perhaps one of the things that is most noticeable about him when writing not only about the projects, some of them very important, to which he gave life, but also about his many initiatives.
Aldo Bassetti played a crucial role in the founding of ‘La Repubblica’, launched in 1976, together with other partners including Carlo Carla Caracciolo and Eugenio Scalfari with whom, a decade earlier, he had already helped save the weekly ‘L’Espresso’.
Almost by chance, in the early 1960s, Aldo Bassetti found himself joining a group that would save the weekly ‘L’Espresso’. It is called ‘Piccolo Naviglio’, and includes, in addition to Bassetti, young heirs from some of Italy’s major industrial dynasties: in fact, in addition to Bassetti, there are Roberto Olivetti and Vittorio Olcese.
The Circolo Culturale (later Club) Turati was founded in 1961 with a board of directors consisting of Aldo Bassetti and, among others, Vittorio Olcese and Eugenio Scalfari with whom, in those very years, he went into partnership to save the weekly ‘L’Espresso’.
After the First World War, the Bassettis thus acquired two of the oldest Italian breweries, Spluga in Chiavenna and Birrificio Angelo Poretti in Induno Olona. Thanks mainly to the latter, Aldo Bassetti took his beer to southern Italy and imported and distributed the great Danish brands Tuborg and Carlsberg. In addition to beer, Bassetti invested in mineral water, for example producing Frisia mineral water in the Spluga plant, which in the 1980s became the first to be marketed in Milan.
In September 1943, the SS killed a group of Jews in Meina, including Lotte Fröhlich Mazzucchelli, aunt of 17-year-old Aldo Bassetti, who was given the terrible task of looking for his body among the corpses thrown into the lake. In memory of that tragedy, Bassetti, honorary president from 2007 to 2020 of the Amici di Brera, purchased and donated Mario Mafai’s ‘Fantasie’ to the Pinacoteca in 2018.
Aldo Bassetti, the second son of Felice Bassetti, belongs to one of the great textile families of Lombardy. After graduating in civil engineering from Milan Polytechnic, he took his first steps in the family business, which he later left to successfully follow his own path.
My mother, and almost all her closest friends, worked at La Rinascente, the oldest and most famous department store in Milan. They went in at a very young age, either as their first job after their studies or, like my mother Giorgina, making a living after separating from her husband (in her case my father, Bernardo Caprotti). They were trained by a very effective school: the employees were the ‘rinascentini’…
How good, with a play by the young and for the young, at the Franco Parenti Theatre, with the collaboration of the Guido Venosta Foundation, ended up triumphing over the evil of the ‘dark years’, of a senseless persecution of me. In both cases the sisters, Claudia and Andrée Ruth Shammah, believed in me and supported me, first one then the other, in different spheres
My mother’s friends, Giorgina, also became my affectionate ‘protectors’, as in the case of Inge Feltrinelli, who was one of the few people who did not abandon me when the worst years of my life arrived. Then Anna Nogara, actress and director, Roberto Olivetti’s second wife and mother of his only daughter, who in her eighties still treads the boards. Finally Adriana Botti, later wife of Mario Monti, owner of the Longanesi publishing house
Giorgina Venosta (1940-2021) daughter of Guido Venosta and Luisa Quintavalle. She married Bernardo Caprotti by whom she had me (1960) and Violetta (1962). She separated from him shortly afterwards, became a respected art expert and married Aldo Bassetti, with whom she also shared a commitment to the FGV, founded in memory of her father by his second wife, Carlo Venosta.
After the death of my grandfather Guido Venosta (1998), his widow Carlo Venosta set up the ‘Guido Venosta European Foundation’, which she looked after until 2017. Guido’s daughter, my mother Giorgina, then joins the board, picking up the baton and passing it on to me at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic (2020).
Your book, Giuseppe Maria Giorgio Caprotti, is wonderful; it has really opened my eyes to the history of modern distribution. Thank you
Highly topical issues covered in a detailed, compelling and engaging manner. It could provide plenty of inspiration for the big…
I will always remember you. Those two years on your team gave me the strength to look to the future. I’ve just finished reading your book. It was very moving. Thank you for the professional training you gave me, and thank you for the new energy you’ve instilled in me after reading it.
Dr Giuseppe (that’s what we always called him at the company) was, for us newcomers, a guiding light and a role model. I would like to highlight the professional, personal and moral depth of the man who embodied the future. A motivator, a natural mentor to whom, following the publication of his book, I feel even more attached
In my view, the difference between journalism, political non-fiction and history lies in the research, which, in the case of history, is much more in-depth and is based, first and foremost, on the study of documents and archives. But the added value of this book also lies in the contributions from people who worked for or were close to Esselunga, a company with a much broader entrepreneurial spirit than one might think
Good evening, Dr Caprotti, I have just finished reading your book *Le Ossa dei Caprotti* with a voracity I haven’t…
Book read with feelings that oscillated between amazement and anger but nevertheless I am not surprised. I enjoyed it very…
On the emotional wave of the end of the book, I only feel a strong empathy for the author, who…
