Like fish and chips in the UK, hamburgers in America and sausages in Germany, pasta is the food most associated with Italy. The average Italian gets through twenty-six kilograms of it every year, and it’s eaten week in, week out by families across the world. Tuck into a plate of pasta in its native country and it’s highly likely that it will have been made by Barilla – a company that has grown to become the country’s favourite producer over the past 100 years. The business has been kept in the family since the beginning (apart from a minor blip in the 1970s), and now the fourth generation of Barillas looks after the company.

It all started in 1877, when a man named Pietro Barilla opened a bread and pasta shop in Parma. It did well, supplying the local citizens in the city with homemade, quality produce every morning. But it wasn’t until his two sons, Riccardo and Gualtiero, took over the business, that Barilla’s true journey began.

In 1910, the two brothers built Barilla’s first factory. Eighty workers produced eight tons of pasta and two tons of bread every day thanks to an innovative ‘continuous baking’ oven – meaning the company could begin to supply the entire city and surrounding area with its products. The Barilla name was trademarked and started to become associated with good pasta. By 1947, Riccardo’s two sons – Gianni and Pietro – were running the business; they set about planning to expand the company throughout Italy with a network of trucks.