Forty years ago, in the cult television broadcast Carosello, which glued Italians in front of televisions between the 60s and 70s, and represented the theater of the affirmation of big industry and the country's economic rebirth, decisively marking the start of the season of consumerist culture, Alice and Hellen Kessler, legendary show girls with fantastic legs, wished Italians a Merry Christmas emerging from a pack of Balocco Almond Panettone. 40 years later in another TV commercial, grandfather Aldo, which depicts the current honorary president of the famous Piedmontese confectionary company, Aldo Balocco, played by the actor Aldo Stella, voice actor of Harvey Keytel, Chris Penn and Brt Young, reveals to grandson the "family secrets" of products "good for three generations" against the background of the historian Balocco red van, which over time has become an icon of the fabled world of the brand.
The company decides to no longer resort to successful testimonials, show girls, showgirls, actresses, who have promoted its products over time. This time it is Mr. Balocco (virtual) himself who, directed by Daniele Luchetti, makes us understand the importance of the company's history, above all the history of people, a history of fidelity to tradition, as a guarantee of product quality and attention to the consumer.
A particular story that has developed over three generations of a confectionery industry that has celebrated 90 years of life, which today it has a turnover of 190 million euros, exports its products to 67 countries around the world, which has ambitious development plans, but above all a 100 percent Italian company that has been able to keep its capital firmly in family hands.
It all began in 1927 in Narzole, a town of 4.000 inhabitants in the province of Cuneo. Francesco Antonio Balocco, eighth son of a trader who owned a confectionery and grocery store in the main street of the town, who at the age of 11 had gone to work, to gain experience, in some historic Piedmontese pastry shops, such as the Converso pastry shop in Bra , the Giordano pastry shop and the Frejus pastry shop in Turin, he returns home having decided that the pastry interests him more than the sugared almonds. And having reached working age, he decides to open a pastry shop in Piazza Castello in Fossano, the fourth most populous municipality in the province of Cuneo, 15 km away from home. The experience gained from an early age in important pastry shops makes his effects felt. The clientele appreciates the young boy's breath of fresh air and frequents his club. Business is going well to the point that Francesco Antonio is soon able to open a second pastry shop, this time on the very central Via Roma. Business continues to boom, even if, with the entry into the war, things get more difficult, but the young man is confident that sooner or later all that horror will have to end.
What Francesco Antonio could not foresee was to enter, with the Social Republic of Salò, in the crosshairs of the Black Brigades. Of course, as an independent spirit, he had never hidden his lack of sympathy for the regime, and he had never wanted to take the PNF membership card. At the fall of fascism he had personally exposed himself in some protest demonstrations. With the Social Republic, northern Italy enters the tragic dynamics of extremism and violence, much heavier than those experienced in the years of fascism. Someone remembers his anti-fascist positions and is determined to make him pay. Before him, attempts were made to put him in difficulty through administrative means, by constantly sending ration inspections to his two stores to force him to close. They can't make it, all the papers are in order. Then we move on to de facto action, with two shipments of Black Brigades looting and devastating the two shops, destining them for closure. This time he was cornered. And to avoid the worst, Francesco Antonio is forced to leave Fossano and flee to the Langhe.
Finally the war ends, the Black Brigades disappear and Balocco can return to Fossano. Francesco Antonio and his son Aldo roll up their sleeves and put the two shops back on their feet. Aldo, however, looks further. With his 23 years, he brings the ideas of the new post-war generation into the family made of momentum, courage, the desire to test himself, and which marked the expansion of the Italian economy towards the boom, he convinces his father to start, in parallel with the production of traditional pastry, a line of dry pastry to be resold to all wholesale and above all leavened products.
La The Balocco family thus passes from the phase of the artisanal dimension to the entrepreneurial one. Aldo sets up a factory with 30 employees in an area of 5000 square meters. As a true Piedmontese, he walks there with lead feet, the investments have been substantial, there are many worries about jumping into this new dimension. But as fortune favors the bold, the establishment that seemed like a gamble soon proved insufficient to respond to the growing market demand. Because the product that will change the course of the company's life is called Mandorlato Balocco.
Made with sourdough, fresh Italian milk, Sicilian candied orange peel, Diamante citron and raisins. It has a handmade hazelnut glaze topping, an original recipe invented by Balocco obtained by grinding whole Italian hazelnuts mixed with sugar, egg whites and rice flour. All completed with whole almonds and sugar flakes. The quality of Balocco products is appreciated throughout Italy. These are the years in which large-scale retail trade spreads, promoting consumption and allowing large numbers. And in the 70s another industrial plant was built, of far different proportions and technologically advanced: 70.000 square meters of which 20.000 are covered which, with the results of the major press and radio and television campaigns, will subsequently expand to 32.000 square meters, where 135 employees. The company's turnover has reached 14 million euros, Balocco is a top-level national industry. There is once again a need for fresh energy to lead a company of this size and keep it anchored to evolving tastes, to interpret the new market needs and open it up to new operational capabilities.
And in 1990, Alessandra and Alberto, Aldo's children, joined the company who assumes the honorary presidency: we are in the third generation. In the meantime, large national confectionery industries have had difficult moments, some have closed, others have changed hands, others have been bought by foreign capital from Alemagna to Motta, from Colussi to Pavesi, from Pernigotti to Pai, a story that seems to have no end as demonstrated by the recent case of Melegatti.
And how are things going at the Baloccos? They continue to sail in the stormy sea of the Italian food and confectionery industry like a battleship. A look at the figures is symptomatic. The volume of business has expanded exponentially since 2008: 103 million euros in 2008, 127 million in 2010, which become 148 in 2012, 162 in 2014,170, 2016 in 185, 2017 in 190, and which will reach 35.800 at the end of this year. And the production volumes of bakery products follow this trend: 2008,49.100 tons in 2012, 64.400 tons in 2017, XNUMX tons in XNUMX. Balocco now occupies the 22% of the Easter leavened market and 19% of the Christmas leavened market (it is the second company in Italy in this sector).
The secret of this success? Family cohesion and having been able to develop an ability to innovate and compete in increasingly globalized markets, always looking inside and beyond the hedge with obsessive attention to artisan origins and the territory.
A cohesion that does not remain anchored to the family group but which extends to all employees.
“In our company – says Alberto Balocco – there are no bosses and no employees. I was born in the 60s and I remember the protest, the terrorism. In reality, a business that works is one whose sole owner is the consumer. Everyone who works in the company owns the company, they share the same goals: to grow and produce the best for their common master, the customer”.
Company boss braggadocio? Far from it. Because from the survey carried out by the independent German company "Statista" dedicated to Italian companies that have obtained the highest approval rating from employees, through a survey among thousands of workers of over 2.000 companies with more than 250 employees, Balocco is in the ranking of top 5 consumer goods companies where people work best.
Attention to the customer therefore, attention to working conditions, but also great commitment in organizing work, in launching new operating strategies and in productive investments. For this reason, great attention is paid to the quality of the raw materials but also to the production. A Quality Control Team of 12 biologists, chemists and analysts takes care of it: on average, over 140.000 analyzes are carried out on raw materials, semi-finished, finished products and packaging every year. The company also submits all the various work phases to the SGS BRC IFS NON-GMO certified standards.
Of course, all of this has a price.
In the last 10 years, 51 million euros have been invested in technology; Balocco now has one of the most modern and efficient factories in Europe. In 2010 the company, particularly sensitive to sustainable production issues, to meet its energy needs, equipped itself with one of the largest photovoltaic plants on an industrial roof in Piedmont, with a total investment of 5,2 million euros: in the first three years of full use (2011 – 2013) produced 5,2 million kWh, avoiding the emission of 3.500 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Furthermore, once again the Fossano plant, given how business is going, becomes tight and expansion works are started which will bring the covered area of the plant from 46.000 to 58.000 square meters in the new year.
The look beyond the hedge has been said. It is certain that today companies need new languages, new locations, to present themselves in a relationship of constant comparison with the consumer who becomes a permanent interlocutor. The opening of FICO-Eatalyworld in Bologna, one of the largest theme parks in the world dedicated to the agri-food and gastronomy sector, has accelerated a project that was already in the air and which Alessandra and Alberto had been thinking about for some time: creating a new of products, leavened sweets of the Christmas tradition and pastry biscuits faithful to the most authentic Piedmontese tradition such as Baci di Dama, Paste di Meliga and Krumiri giving life to the brand “Bottega Balocco – Italian Bakery 1927”. To keep them baptized inside FICO-Eatalyworld a miniature factory was set up, the first outside the historic headquarters in Fossano, 600 square meters where everything takes place under the eye of the customer. The recipes are those found in a dusty archive of the company, meticulously handwritten at the beginning of the century based on fresh milk and cream, sourdough, Italian eggs from free-range hens, "a journey back in time to the traditions of our land - comments Aldo Balocco today – to reawaken the memory of taste and smell of our grandmothers' homes”. Above all, a message sent to the consumer to underline that Balocco has always remained faithful to the history of the territory, to quality ingredients and to the family traditions of the Piedmontese province, and even if today it is a large national industry it does not forget its history.
Because as Aldo Balocco is keen to underline, “we were born from an artisan workshop and have become a large company without ever betraying the work of those who preceded us because we respect our origins. Having an almost century-old history like ours is a great responsibility. It is up to us to maintain the credibility and trust that our predecessors have been able to build over many years with their work, dedication and effort".
