Le Ossa dei Caprotti

Friends of Bernardo Caprotti and Giorgina Venosta: architect Vico Magistretti and publisher Rosellina Archinto

My father Bernardo wanted Vico Magistretti to design the Esselunga superstore in Pantigliate, which opened in 2001, where two years later the first of the ‘Bar Atlantique’ (now ‘Bar Atlantic’) opened, also designed by Magistretti, who renovated the food outlets that I had strongly desired since the first superstores. The great architect worked for my father, but he was also a close friend of my mother GiorginaOf mutual friends Rosellina Archinto, who animated Milan’s cultural life for decades

Bernardo Caprotti’s and Giorgina Venosta’s friends: architect Mario Botta

Born in Mendrisio in 1943, he designed the shopping centre in Via Canova, Florence, for Esselunga. Mario Botta was at home in Monate, in the villa of my mother Giorgina and her husband Aldo Bassetti. When my grandmother Luisa Quintavalle died in 2009, she wrote an affectionate condolence card to my mother, with a sketch on the cover for the new Alpine church in Mogno, Switzerland, which was swept away by an avalanche in 1986.

The Caprotti family and architects: Ignazio Gardella and the first Esselunga Superstore

When Bernardo Caprotti, with remarkable foresight, decided to build larger supermarkets, his passion for architecture led him to seek the collaboration of great architects such as Ignazio Gardella, whose designs changed the concept of the supermarket from a simple container to a building with distinctive architecture, another element that allowed Esselunga to strengthen brand recognition and establish its shops as a central service to neighbourhoods, especially the most peripheral ones. Such large supermarkets, however, need to be filled, and at that point my American experience suggests how to do this through ‘non-food’, that is, ‘everything that is not food’: from products of all kinds (from stationery to laundry to crockery) to services (customer care, express checkouts, home shopping, e-commerce).

Giorgina Venosta’s friends: Gae Aulenti, Ettore Sottsass, Vittorio Gregotti

My mother Giorgina, who from 1977 to 1991 was the representative in Milan of the auction house Christie’s, in charge of liaising with all the experts in the various sectors, and then an art expert with her own company, Consulenza d’Arte, which she founded in 1992 with two other partners, could only move well in the environment where the great architect-designers gravitated, forging friendships that lasted a lifetime.

Giorgina Venosta’s friends: Pierluigi Cerri and Donatella Brustio in Cerri

Pierluigi Cerri, one of Italy’s greatest architect-designers and winner of three Compasso d’Oro awards – the oldest and most prestigious design prize in the world – happily gravitated around the tables of the villa that my mother Giorgina and her second husband, Aldo Bassetti, owned on Lake Monate. Pierluigi had also married Donatella Brustio, a descendant of the family that was identified with La Rinascente for decades (she herself worked there from a very young age), and a close friend of my mother’s. She was a very sweet woman and, like all Giorgina’s friends, strong and resourceful. Her death in 2016 left a great void.

The Caprotti family and sport: my maternal grandfather Guido Caprotti Venosta, horse riding

After finishing high school, his grandfather did his military service at the Cavalry School in Pinerolo, where he graduated in 1932 and was then assigned to the Savoy Cavalry Corps. His passion for horse riding remained with him throughout his life.

The Caprotti family and sport: Uncle Luigi Venosta called Gigi, hockey and medals

Luigi Venosta, called Gigi, my grandfather’s second brother, was ‘the most popular Italian player’ of ice hockey in the 1930s, as ‘La Gazzetta dello Sport’ described him, wearing among other things the Azzurri jersey for more than twenty games. During the war he was an aviator, and earned a silver medal in the field. In the photo, Gigi Venosta is last in the back, in the breakaway, wearing the dark jersey.

The Esselunga Dream Team: Sales. From point-of-sale employees to salespeople

Sales have been the backbone of Esselunga, fundamental to achieving all the extraordinary results I talk about in my book or on my website.

The Esselunga Dream Team: the buyers

The buyers, both old and young, were certainly responsible for the quality of the products and the great economic results achieved over time: profitability in the early 2000s is 2.5 times that of the 1990s.

Fabrics make history – Manifattura Caprotti in Albiate, 1970s-1980s

thanks to the availability of Aristide ‘Mentore’ Zotti, a former Manifattura employee, and his son Luca, whom I thank from the bottom of my heart, I was able to view some examples of the company’s modern samples dating from 1970-80

The Caprotti family and the Manifattura: one hundred years and more at Ponte Albiate, 1840 – 2000

The Caprotti family … Their activity in the field of textile manufacturing perhaps began between the 18th and 19th centuries with Giovanni Caprotti (…). The Caprotti family built the first industrial plant in Ponte Albiate in 1867

The Caprotti family and the war: my grandfather Giuseppe Caprotti called Peppino second lieutenant in the Third Alpine Regiment, 1919

When Italy entered the First World War (1915-1918), my grandfather Peppino was mobilised and assigned to the platoon…

The Caprotti family female: my grandmother Marianne Maire, 1920s

Marianne Maire, a Frenchwoman from Épinal, was Grandpa Peppino’s wife, whom he met while studying in France. She was not an easy character, but I remember most of all the sweetness with which she treated us grandchildren. When, in the 1960s, her three sons decided to take over their share of Supermarket (the future Esselunga) from the Americans of IBEC, she came to their rescue with 300 million lire at the time and the relinquishment of most of her rights over Manifattura Caprotti and the family assets she had inherited from her late husband, helping them in no small measure to achieve their goal.

The Caprotti family: aunt Maria Luisa Austoni, 1960s

My parents separated when I was 3 years old, and we grew up surrounded by the affection of Grandma Marianne and Aunt Lu. With her and my mother, we spent beautiful summers in Forte dei Marmi, ‘interchangeable children’ with our little cousins, aunt and uncle Guido’s daughters. We had known each other forever, like our parents, who also met when we were kids.

My mother Giorgina with Guido Somarè, in the 1970s

Guido Somarè (1923 – 2003), a talented painter, was my mother Giorgina’s companion for a long time after her separation from her husband, and was like a father to me. With him we spent wonderful summers in Lindos, on the island of Rhodes: it was there that I was introduced to David Gilmour, Pink Floyd’s guitarist, a thrill never forgotten

The Caprotti family and customers: ‘Cotton with lots of bright red’, requests for supplies to Manifattura Caprotti, 1840 – 1918

These were mostly cotton fabrics for linings (e.g. for mattresses) and for clothes for a lower-middle class clientele who preferred bright colours, especially in the case of female customers.

The Caprotti family and the Manifattura: the workers with my great-grandfather Bernardo Caprotti, September 1924

I often heard from Lucia about my great-grandfather Bernardo Caprotti that he was ‘a family person’, who had worked at the Manifattura Caprotti, before coming to stay with us in Milan

The Caprotti family and studies: Institut Le Rosey, Rolle, Canton of Vaud (Switzerland), 1975 -1979

Le Rosey boarding school was a few kilometres from Bursinel. Between the two of us, we had some great times, even with my father Bernardo. We invited my friends and Violetta’s friends and he often cooked for all of us. A wonderful memory.

The Caprotti family: Benedetta and Giuseppe Caprotti’s First Communion, May 1970

As happens with every event of this kind, the family photo at the end of the ceremony was a must, and the lens included two ‘extended’ family groups (Bernardo Caprotti, Venosta, Austoni, Rivolta), with many of the protagonists of my life, from my grandmother Marianne to my aunt Lu with her sisters, from my mother on the far left of the photo to Uncle Guido on the far right, all realised by my father Bernardo’s lens.

The Caprotti family: Giuseppe with his uncle Guido and uncle Claudio Caprotti at Forte dei Marmi, 1966

When they were able to go on holiday, the other uncles also took part in the games on the beach at Forte dei Marmi. Here I am with my father’s two younger brothers, Guido, the second son, and Claudio, the third son, much younger than the other two.

The Caprotti family and friends: Inge Feltrinelli with Giorgina Venosta at Forte dei Marmi, 1970s

My mother Giorgina was a close friend of Inge Feltrinelli, Guido’s widow and head of his publishing house after his death. I remember their friendship from childhood, and I keep photographs of it developing over the decades until Inge’s death in 2018.

Caprotti family Easter egg hunt, 1964

For us, children with transalpine blood and habits, hunting for Easter eggs among the meadows and trees has always been a habit. With our mothers and cousins we would scatter around the countryside, well dressed and the girls in their hats; the customary photo would follow, like this one, full of the tenderness of memories, perfect for wishing everyone a peaceful Easter.

Negotiations: Coca-Cola and Barilla

I made peace with Barilla after more than ten years of quarrelling. In the end in 1999 we gained, and a lot. An exceptional turnaround (plus 458 per cent in two years), in a very short time . Coca-Cola, in the late 1990s, came to Esselunga with absolutely unacceptable commercial conditions. In the end, the Antitrust Authority agreed and the American company was condemned to pay a fine of 15 million euros

‘Supper Market of style’: Kean Etro’s men’s fashion show on the shelves of the Esselunga in Via Washington, 2001

In 2001, Kean Etro ‘wandered around [in the Esselunga on Washington Street] presenting his collection of plant-dyed cotton sweaters among the very first organic product counters. ‘They took us for fools. Then the organic line is still there’ “. In 2014, Chanel also paraded its models among the shelves of a supermarket at the Grand Palais in Paris. Only the supermarket was fake.

Sustainability: ‘Naturama’ and ‘Esselunga Bio’, organic in Italy

The basic idea is to focus on three different market segments: the higher end with organic products, the middle end with the usual Esselunga products and the lower end with the Fidel brand, which brings together ‘good-for-all’ products. In 2003, Naturama and Esselunga Bio now account for 10 per cent of turnover.

‘ESSELUNGA AT HOME’: the first large-scale retail e-commerce in Italy

We saw at Delhaize in Belgium a system that allows customers to do their shopping either via the web or via fax and have it delivered to their home. Bernardo, although not convinced, gives his approval. … we started with e- commerce in Monza in March 2001, using the warehouse of the supermarket in Via San Fruttuoso, which we adapted as a dark store

Chicago 1987, before superstores

Charles Fitzmorris, Esselunga’s IT service provider, convinces my father to let me go to America to gain experience. He puts me in touch with the family of one of his clients, Dominick Di Matteo, who has a chain of supermarkets in Chicago. During my two-year stay, during which I worked my way up through the ranks internally, starting as a general worker, I learned the basics, and then in Milan I was able to put to good use what would become the great change, the quantum leap that would make Esselunga’s fortune.

São Paulo, Brazil, Giuseppe Caprotti’s work baptism, 1979

After high school I follow my best friend, who is Brazilian, to São Paulo. My father did not appreciate the decision, but he supported it; I found my first job, a worker in the branch of the French Carrefour chain, of which a friend of my father’s, Francesco De Marchi, was then in charge, and he also took me to visit several Brazilian locations. It is a baptism of fire at work, but it leaves me with the excellent memory of an important experience.

Giuseppe Caprotti portrayed as Benefactor of the Ca’ Granda Foundation, 2023

When my mother Giorgina Venosta passed me the baton of the Guido Venosta Foundation, created in memory of her father and my grandfather, we were in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. As President, I then tried to intervene as much as possible with concrete aid to cope with the emergency; among these was the donation of 12 intensive care beds at the Policlinico di Milano. And the Foundation that runs it, in keeping with a centuries-old tradition that began in 1459, has paid tribute to this charity by dedicating a portrait to me

The Caprotti family and the animals: Giorgina Venosta on her honeymoon, 1958

Love for animals, and dogs in particular, has always been a constant in our family. Mum always had a little dog in her arms as soon as she could, as in this photograph, part of a series taken by my father Bernardo, which shows her on her honeymoon in France (they were married in November 1958) with a puppy on her lap. Because of this love of hers, one of the projects of the Guido Venosta Foundation, which I chair, supported the Fondazione Progetto Arca Onlus, which was able to buy a farmhouse in Baggio to turn it into a reception centre for homeless people with dogs, usually rejected by other institutions.

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’.

Giorgina Venosta catwalks for Emilio Pucci

“Giorgina has no money, and must live. Beautiful and with an elegant figure, she could not fail to be noticed: and an old, faded newspaper page still from 1964 shows her, full page spread, as a mannequin (this was how catwalk models were defined at the time, with an eloquent Frenchness). She is wearing a rich and resplendent dress, and the person who finishes ‘adorning’ her is Marquis Emilio Pucci, one of the founders of ‘made in Italy’ fashion and an absolute genius of creativity, who certainly did not choose his models at random’.

The Caprotti family: Giorgina Venosta with little Giuseppe in St. Moritz, 1964

The beauty of the mountains and the snow, as well as our passion for skiing (they used to put snowshoes in our hands as soon as we could walk on our own), were the stage for unforgettable family moments, like this shot with my mother Giorgina in St. Moritz in 1964. It was there, at the home of her father, Grandpa Guido, that we children were able to see her most often after the separation from our father.

The Caprotti family and the cinema: Niccolò Theodoli with Aldo Fabrizi, 1958

Niccolò Theodoli, grandmother Luisa’s second husband, was a film and television producer. In fact, like many, he combined the production of films, even successful ones (he won a David di Donatello for Racconti romani in 1955), with the production of sketches for television.

The Caprotti family and cinema: off-scene of Walter Chiari and Lucia Bosè at Sestriere, 1951

It is L’amor che mi rovina (1951), produced by Niccolò Theodoli, grandmother Luisa’s second husband, was a good box-office success and all in all positive reviews, if not for the story, generally considered insulting, for the excellent direction and acting.

The Caprotti family and the cinema: maternal grandmother Luisa, who remarried Theodoli, with Silvana Pampanini, 1951

Luisa Quintavalle’s fortune dwindled during her second marriage. Luisa and Niccolò Theodoli maintained an extremely lavish lifestyle, and their investments proved disastrous in both property and cinema, despite producing films by renowned directors such as Mario Soldati and Gianni Franciolini, with whom Niccolò won the David di Donatello award for *Racconti romani*.

The Caprotti family: holidays and gifts, which always have a meaning

One Christmas in the early 1970s, I received a small electric train from Dad. It is beautiful but trains and mechanics don’t interest me, they are his passions. I exchange it for some Violetta’s succulent plants. Bernardo however uses this episode to repeat a recurring idea of his: Violetta is smarter than me, ‘she is a future businesswoman’ he says. Instead I am referred to as ‘the thinker’. I don’t dislike the term, but I believe that Bernardo basically despises literati, journalists, professors, whom he lumps together with the left-wing intelligentsia that his ex-wife Giorgina frequents. In the case of the little train, what counts for our father is only the material value of the object, which is certainly higher than that of the plants.

The Caprotti family: Giuseppe as a child, c. 1966.

With our father, we also experience beautiful and carefree moments. With him we listen to music, we talk, we laugh, we joke, we watch some television, we even go on holidays and trips together. But around the age of 10 something already starts to go wrong. I look a lot like my cheating mother, I also have a good relationship with her, and Dad doesn’t get that. I also miss physical affection so much: never a hug or a caress from him.

The Caprotti family: Violetta, Giuseppe, Benedetta and Elisabetta with nannies Franca and Sissi, St. Moritz, 1960s

My sister Violetta and I went to the mountains with my mother, accompanied by cousins Benedetta and Elisabetta, Uncle Guido’s daughters, and escorted by the eternal ‘young ladies’.

The Caprotti family: Aunt Diana Theodoli and I, in 1961

Aunt Diana, grandmother Luisa’s third daughter from her second marriage to Niccolò Theodoli, is about ten years older than me. After her marriage to Marcello Pallini, she moved to Tuscany, where she distinguished herself as an agricultural entrepreneur and public figure to the point of being awarded the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro in 2011.

Reviews about the book "Le ossa dei Caprotti"

People say about me Reviews 27/06/2026

Pino Coletti on Le Ossa dei Caprotti

Your book, Giuseppe Maria Giorgio Caprotti, is wonderful; it has really opened my eyes to the history of modern distribution. Thank you

Reviews 24/11/2025

My friend Maurizio Bettoni on Le Ossa dei Caprotti

Highly topical issues covered in a detailed, compelling and engaging manner. It could provide plenty of inspiration for the big…

People say about me Reviews 23/11/2025

Francesco Bordese, assistant detergent buyer, remembers me, talks about his time at Esselunga and tells me about Le Ossa dei Caprotti

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.

People say about me Reviews 23/11/2025

Fabio Bellerè on me, on One More Time and on Le Ossa dei Caprotti

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

History of Esselunga History of Italy History of the Caprotti and Venosta families People say about me Press & Events Reviews 23/11/2025

“Le Ossa dei Caprotti”: the difference between journalistic reporting and history

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

Reviews 22/11/2025

Le Ossa dei Caprotti

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

Reviews about the book "Le ossa dei Caprotti"

Keywords

Characters

Follow me on my official social media