The Story of Barilla
A Shop and a Dream
When he opened a modest pasta shop in Parma, Italy, in 1877, Pietro Barilla had a dream: to supply his neighborhood with the freshest, most delicious food to be shared with loved ones at home. What he couldn’t have possibly dreamed was that, 130 years later, his handiwork would become the best-selling premium pasta in Italy and around the world.
Barilla opened his small shop – consisting of a table, a kneading trough and a small oven – on Via Vittorio Emanuele, a busy shopping street in the northern Italian city of Parma, located in Emilia-Romagna, a region renowned for its cuisine and rich agricultural heritage. Pietro and his son, Riccardo, worked side by side – sometimes for as long as 18 hours a day –making fresh bread and pasta by hand. Their signature sunshine yellow, horse-drawn carts would travel through the early morning streets of Parma, laden with fresh Barilla products.
By the turn of the century, father and son had purchased a small wooden press that enabled them to produce 110 pounds of pasta daily. With their profits, they invested in a more up-to-date cast iron press and a new kneading machine, which allowed the production of Barilla pasta to increase dramatically, to more than 400 pounds per day.
Soon after, in 1907-08, they rented a warehouse and continued to produce premium pasta, increasing their production to over 1,000 pounds a day. Eventually, the Barillas purchased the warehouse, which today still stands on the same street – now renamed Viale Barilla – in Parma.
Quality and Family
From the beginning, product quality was paramount for Barilla, a factor dependent on the superior quality of the durum wheat flour, or semolina, used to make the pasta. Legend has it that Riccardo Barilla would dust the sleeves of his black suit with the semolina. If no specks remained after he brushed it off, the flour was dry enough and finely ground enough to use in Barilla pasta.
Barilla has always been a company that understands the importance of family. Pietro’s children and grandchildren grew up with Barilla’s factories as their primary playgrounds; today, they run the company. As they witnessed Barilla’s incredible growth, Pietro’s progeny carried on his dedication to tradition and excellence.
Today, Barilla is the world leader in pasta production, manufacturing over 4,000 tons of pasta daily in over 120 shapes and sizes at 30 state-of-the-art facilities around the globe. The company boasts the world’s largest pasta factory, in Parma, and the largest in the U.S., in Ames, Iowa.
Despite its global scope and international popularity, Barilla has not changed the philosophy that has guided it for four generations – it remains a family-run business dedicated to developing, creating and sharing delicious, wholesome products with the “global neighborhood.”
1877-1936
1939-1960
1965-1974
1975-1987
1989-1992
1993-1996
1997-2000
2001-2003
