BAULI GROUP OPENS NEW GLUTEN-FREE FACILITY IN ALTOPASCIO

A €12 million redevelopment for the new production site of Alpipan, the Group’s gluten-free specialist

The completed project strengthens Group business in the Health & Wellbeing segment

Altopascio, July 28, 2023 – Bauli Group opens its new gluten-free facility in Altopascio, Italy’s ‘bread capital’, in the province of Lucca.

The €12m investment in the redevelopment of the new site involved numerous energy efficiency operations, technological innovations and improvements to the workplace for the 70 men and women working at Alpipan, a specialist maker of gluten-free products and part of Bauli Group. The redevelopment will enable the company to increase output fivefold thanks to state-of-the-art production systems.

The Group is thus continuing to diversify its product lines and extend the offering of its “Health & Wellbeing” business unit, which produces health foods (organic, protein, protein-free and gluten-, milk- or lactose-free foods).

Historically a centre of excellence for baked goods, Altopascio has been home to Alpipan since 2004 and now hosts Bauli Group’s new production facility: over 10,000 square metres dedicated to baked goods including bread, snacks, biscuits and much more, all strictly gluten-free. Alpipan is thus continuing to base its growth in Altopascio, where it started life, and to leverage ongoing promotion of the local labour force’s consolidated know-how and skills.

The redevelopment of the existing facility lasted around two years and involved the integration and extension of the two separate buildings used previously by another bakery company, creating new space for the company’s production, offices and R&D laboratories.

The facility has also been upgraded in terms of energy efficiency thanks to the installation of solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by Bauli Group CEO Fabio Di Giammarco, Alpipan CEO and Bauli Group Health & Wellbeing Business Unit Director Pierluigi Rumbo and Alpipan Co-Founder and Operations Director Alberto Gori, while local government was represented by the mayor of Altopascio, Sara d’Ambrosio.

“With the opening of Alpipan’s new site, we are stepping up the diversification of our business lines and strengthening a strategic segment with huge growth potential at global level,” commented Bauli Group CEO Fabio Di Giammarco. “By developing our Health & Wellbeing business unit we aim to meet our consumers’ needs and cater for all possible eating styles. Our goal is to serve all kinds of consumers with an offering of extremely high-quality products, from the simplest to the most fanciful. It’s a goal I’m convinced we will achieve, not least thanks to the hard work and outstanding know-how of the people who work here in Altopascio.”

“From a past of industrial bread making to a new future of development and enterprise, still in the food industry but unrelated to and very different from the previous business: this is the story of this production facility here in Altopascio, this is the story of Alpipan, a beacon for our community that continues to grow and achieve significant milestones,” explained the mayor of Altopascio, Sara D’Ambrosio. “For Altopascio, a company of this kind adds value to our area in terms of employment, economic development and the supply chain it brings with it, but also in terms of recovering our existing building stock, which Alpipan has made possible with this investment. Turnover in Altopascio’s industrial district has always been very active, as is the case here. The site has a long history of bread making, followed by a very difficult period for the business, so it’s great to see the site coming back to life thanks to the excellence of Alpipan.”

 “Altopascio is where Alpipan grew and expanded thanks to the extraordinary expertise developed here by its people, before joining an iconic made-in-Italy group like Bauli,” commented Alpipan CEO and Bauli Group Health & Wellbeing Business Unit Director Pierluigi Rumbo. “Given our respect for the community that has welcomed us and our commitment to environmental sustainability, we are also particularly proud of our decision to recover and redevelop an existing site and so avoid using greenfield land. By strange coincidence, in this building that we’re opening today I had a holiday job as a baker when I was 17. So it’s even more satisfying for me that this place is now Alpipan’s new headquarters.”