Pernigotti, one of the symbolic brands of Italian chocolate could restart thanks to the intervention of Witor's, whose majority since last summer has been in the hands of 21 Invest of Alessandro Benetton.
"The road is uphill and there are still many knots to untie, but we may have reached a turning point," a source close to the operation told Firstonline.
Witor's owns two factories (in Corte de' Frati in the province of Cremona and in Gorizia) very technologically advanced, 220 employees, about 80 million in revenues and a presence in over 70 countries. “The company has large margins of production capacity” say other sources. “The union with Pernigotti would be a perfect joint”.
Owners of Pernigotti since 2013 are the Turks of Toksoz to which Witor's has forwarded a letter of intent, effectively opening the negotiation. Also on March 30th the Changing the a dedicated table will open, between ownership and unions.
There are many knots to untie, including the fate of Novi Ligure
Witor's, which produces chocolate on a broad spectrum, from eggs to Boers, "would have the ability to take over the business and relaunch it abroad as well", but we need to see what price the negotiation could cost and understand what can be done for it historic Pernigiotti factory in Novi Ligure, in the province of Alessandria, with 70-80 employees on layoffs until the end of June.
Over the years, Novi Ligure has suffered from lack of investment on automation and modernization becoming obsolete, so much so that in 2018 the owners had decided to close the Italian plant. Unions and the government intervened and the sale of the property had been reached branch-ice cream to Optima and the owners' commitment to invest up to 3 million euros to modernize the production lines in the Novi Ligure chocolate factory. However, now the chocolate factory is almost at a standstill and no production has taken place either for last Christmas or for this coming Easter, with the fear of unions and workers that production will be moved to Turkey.
