100 years of goodness creation: Bauli Group celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding

Verona, October 27, 2022 – Historic anniversary for the Bauli Group. Today, Bauli Group celebrates the centenary since its founding.

It was 1922 when Ruggero Bauli opened a small artisan pastry shop in Verona, focusing on the traditional pandoro recipe. Today, three generations later, Bauli is a true excellence of made in Italy, a leader in the sector of festivity products and an established player in the daily-consumption products segment. The Group is well-known in Italy and abroad, with about 1,700 employees worldwide, 7 production sites and a broad product portfolio that includes brands such as Bauli, Doria, Motta, Alemagna and Bistefani.

In the extraordinary setting of the Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona – a place symbolizing the Group’s commitment to its community thanks to its support to the Fondazione Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona, the oldest library in the world still in operation – President Michele Bauli recounted the Group’s history and growth path and its goals for the next 100 years.

“To have the opportunity to celebrate this extraordinary milestone today makes me particularly proud,” comments Michele Bauli, President of the Bauli Group. “To think that as a family company we have gone through one hundred years of Italian history, also witnessing several moments of great difficulty and contributing, in our own small way, to making our country a true excellence in the world, can only make me, as well as the entire Bauli family, moved and proud. This achievement would not have been possible without the hardworking men and women who, with their talent, passion and creativity, make those simple and good products for which we are now known in Italy as well as in the rest of the world. It all started from the dream of a pastry chef, my grandfather Ruggero who, with impressive tenacity and vision, started the history of a piece of Italian entrepreneurship, a piece that we have inherited with great care and respect for tradition along with the will to innovate while looking to the future. This is the approach we will also adopt for our next 100 years.”

In order to share the narrative of the milestones of a century-long history with the general public, the company has created two valuable popular products:

• A docufilm about its century-long history, produced by TIMVision and available on the platform as well as on the Group’s website and social channels starting from tomorrow, Oct. 28, 2022, with interviews with the Group’s President Michele Bauli and the people who every day contribute to the company’s success;

• A celebratory volume, published by Franco Maria Ricci Editore, which traces, through unpublished episodes and historical images, the stages that led Bauli to the top of the Italian market. The volume is available and freely consultable on the Bauli Group’s website: http://100.bauligroup.it/

The event also featured the cancellation ceremony of the stamp dedicated to the Bauli Group Centenary, belonging to the thematic series “The excellences of the production and economic system” and issued by the Ministry of Economic Development.

For more information on the Bauli Group’s Centenary you can visit: http://100.bauligroup.it/

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100 years of goodness creation: the history of Bauli Group

• 1922: Ruggero Bauli opened a small artisan pastry shop in Verona focusing on the traditional pandoro recipe.

• 1927: Attracted by the idea of exporting his pastry art, Ruggero Bauli set out in search of new opportunities overseas, attempting a new life in Argentina. He embarked with all his equipment on the steamship “Principessa Mafalda” on its last transatlantic voyage, but during the crossing, not far from the Brazilian coasts, the ship lost a propeller, took on water and sank in a few hours. It was the most serious Italian naval disaster of the 20th century. Fortunately, Ruggero survived the shipwreck, but found himself starting from scratch with no money and no machinery. Arriving in South America, after a stint as a taxi driver in Rio de Janeiro, he managed to move to Argentina, his true destination, where in a bakery in Buenos Aires he managed to rebuild his fortune in ten years, thanks to his craftsmanship.

• 1937: Ruggero Bauli returned to Verona and restarted his own business, which became the city’s first pastry shop

• 1950’s: Ruggero decided to start the industrial production of what would forever remain etched in the hearts of Italian families: the Bauli Pandoro. The first production site was inaugurated in what was called largo Perlar, now named after Ruggero Bauli himself.

• 1960’s: His sons Alberto, Adriano and Carlo took over from the founder Ruggero Bauli. It was the beginning of a journey that, thanks to innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and a bond with tradition, took Bauli to the top of the Italian market.

• 1990s: The 1990s represented a real turning point for Bauli. Through an intuition of Alberto Bauli, the company entered the market of baked goods for daily consumption with its new line of croissants, expanding its business beyond the Christmas and Easter festivities segment. Bauli also started producing its first chocolate eggs, diversifying its range of products for festivities.

• 2000’s: Bauli continued its growth by developing in the international market, exporting the quality of made in Italy and the combination of tradition and innovation that distinguishes the company, and focusing on numerous strategic acquisitions. In fact, a path of strong expansion began with the acquisition of historical brands, including, Doria, Motta, Alemagna, and Bistefani.

• 2017: With Michele Bauli at the helm, third generation of the family, a factory was opened in India to better reach Southeast Asian countries.

• 2018 e 2021: More strategic acquisitions: the majority stake in the Tuscan company Alpipan, to strengthen the production of gluten-free and low-protein products, and the acquisition of a majority stake in MaxSport, a company from the Slovak Republic specialized in protein products and dietary supplements. Opening of the Singapore sales subsidiary. In order to meet consumers’ needs, Dacasto Gran Pasticceria, a Piedmont-based company that produces artisanal desserts, is acquired in the domestic market.

• 2022: Centennial since Bauli’s founding. In this symbolic year, the company’s first sustainability report will be published in November.