Barilla S.p.A. (Barilla G. e R. Fratelli Società per Azioni) is an Italian food company.
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Overview
The company was founded in 1877 as a bakery shop in Parma, Italy by Pietro Barilla. The company is privately held, and remains in the fourth generation of Barilla family ownership and control through three brothers, chairman Guido Barilla, and vice chairmen Luca Barilla and Paolo Barilla.
Barilla group controls Barilla (multinational pasta maker), Mulino Bianco, Pavesi, Voiello, Alixir and Academia Barilla (Italy), Wasabröd (Sweden), Misko (Greece), Filiz (Turkey), Yemina and Vesta (Mexico) trademarks.
The group produces many kinds of pasta, and is the world's leading pasta maker with 40-45% of the Italian market and 25% of the US market. It produces pasta in over 120 shapes and sizes. Barilla brand pasta is sold in numerous restaurants worldwide, such as those belonging to the Pastamania chain. It is also the leading seller of bakery products in Italy. Through its acquisition of the Swedish company Wasa, it is the world's leading producer of flatbread (a Scandinavian staple), selling 60,000 tons annually. The company markets pasta in the U.S. as being Italian ("An Italian Favorite" marketing) in flavor, but most of the product in the United States is actually made in Iowa or New York and not Italy. The wheat used is mainly local.
Barilla Group has several production plants all over the world: in Italy, Greece, France, Germany, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, the United States (in Ames, Iowa and Avon, New York), and Mexico. The company also operates mills in Italy, Greece, Sweden, Turkey, and the US. While its central office is in Parma, it has corporate offices in several other countries as well, such as Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the US, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Japan. Barilla's Italian production facilities are located at Parma, Foggia, Marcianise, Castiglione delle Stiviere, Cremona, Melfi, Rubbiano, Novara, and Ascoli Piceno. Its plant in Greece (near Thiva) is the third largest in Europe. The plant where the pasta was made is noted on the packaging by a code letter, whereas products made in Italy are explicitly labeled as such. The wheat used to make the final product is purchased from around the world.
LGBT activism
Original controversy
On September 25, 2013, in an interview given to La Zanzara Radio24, answering a question regarding his company's lack of advertising involving gay families, Chairman Guido Barilla made the following comment (translation from The Huffington Post):
We have a slightly different culture, for us, the "sacral family" remains one of the company's core values. Our family is a traditional family. If gays like our pasta and our advertisings, they will eat our pasta; if they don't like that, they will eat someone else's pasta. You can't always please everyone not to displease anyone. I would not do a commercial with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect toward homosexuals - who have the right to do whatever they want without disturbing others - but because I don't agree with them, and I think we want to talk to traditional families. The women are crucial in this.
He also stated that, while he has respect for gay marriage, "I have no respect for adoption by gay families because this concerns a person who is not able to choose."
Soon after the comments were made, many people took to Twitter and started calling for a boycott against Barilla products. Alessandro Zan, a gay rights campaigner and MP in the left-wing Sel (Sinistra Ecologia Libertà) party, said that he would be boycotting Barilla products as a result of the speech, and called on other parliamentarians to follow his example. The chairman of Equality Italia, Aurelio Mancuso, accused Barilla of being deliberately provocative, and added: "Accepting the invitation of Barilla's owner to not eat his pasta, we are launching a boycott campaign against all his products."
Guido later apologized by saying: "I apologize if my words generated misunderstandings or arguments, or if they offended the sensibilities of some people. In the interview I simply wished to underline the central role the woman plays within the family."
Despite the statements of support for Barilla by such organizations within Italy as the parents movement MOIGE (Movimento Italiano Genitori), and apparent support from the Italian politician Eugenia Roccella, the calls for boycott continued, and Barilla agreed to meet with gay rights advocates to try to calm the controversy. The British newspaper The Guardian reported on 29 September 2013 that the rival Bertolli group was taking advantage of Barilla's perceived homophobia, stating: "Bertolli welcomes everyone, especially those with an empty stomach".
Support of LGBT rights
After the boycott, Barilla Group started to advocate for LGBT rights, including "health benefits for transgender workers and their families, contributing money to gay rights causes, and featuring a lesbian couple on a promotional [website]." American organization Human Rights Campaign gave the company a top score in their 2015 Corporate Equality Index which rates "employers who are LGBT-friendly". Guido stated that he is "proud to say that" they "have all learned a great deal about the true definition and meaning of family, and over the past year we have worked hard to reflect that throughout our organization."
Sponsorships
The company has sponsored the Italian national basketball team on several occasions, as well as the Italian race car driver Alex Zanardi.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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