COMPANY
From 1897 to post second world-war
In 1897 Caldirola was a simple osteria in Contra, a small hamlet in the Comune of
Missaglia where the current Casa Vinicola Caldirola headquarter is based today.
It was here that Ferdinando Caldirola's story, which would link three generations
of his family to the tables of the Italian populace, had its beginning. During the
1940s, Ferdinando, together with his son Gaetano, transformed the osteria, at that
time a popular meeting point for the locals, into a more structured sales point.
He even branched out into the sale of cured meats, a business that would require
the involvement of all the family members. At the beginning, the business was small.
However, slowly the wine-trade started to become more significant, to eventually
establish itself as the main commercial activity of a company that had begun selling
wine fifty years ago.
in the sixties wine is a much-loved product that incites relaxation and warms the
atmosphere at the table. During the 1960s, Gaetano Caldirola explores the best vineyards
of the Piedmont region: barbera, nebbiolo and moscato as a starting point. He subsequently
hires seven more people to help him bottle the wines. At the time, the apparatus
used was manual and there was only a single truck that transported the wine from
the railway station to Missaglia. The small company was successful and the osterie
of the area appreciated the design of the bottles in which the wine was kept and
sold. The bottles did not yet feature any labels, simply different coloured bottle
tops in order to distinguish the various vineyards. The glass was embossed with
the words "Caldirola wines". The smaller bottles, those holding a quarter litre,
attracted a new kind of customer and staff canteens begin to feature them as a beverage
choice. Over the following decade, the following names gain importance: Innocenti,
Alfa, Bianchi, Falk, Pirelli, Vismara...
During the seventies, bottling plants become ever more technological until they
become fully automated. The Gattinara winery in the province of Vercelli becomes
part of Caldirola's permanent production infrastructure where the wines undergo
a natural fermentation process. Caldirola chooses the Lombardy region as the most
suitable location for the commercialisation of its wines – a region that not only
offers the possibility of new markets but also the availability of services that
are required in the immediate surroundings. New retail opportunities rapidly increase
and are ready to be seized. Large Scale Retail is the new objective and Nando Caldirola
is ready to take this path. The label "La Cacciatora" becomes the protagonist of
the promotional campaigns that are to become a regular means of communicating important
issues. The high quality of the wine is associated with a reasonable price and the
assortment becomes vaster; from the Piedmont to Tuscany, from Sicily to Abruzzo.
Large-scale retail becomes a good excuse for making significant changes to the production
processes. The company introduces the "empty loses out" campaign and encourages
consumers to recycle their glass wine bottles. It is in this way that the company's
environmental awareness increases, to play an ever more important role over time.
With the consolidation of sales in the Italian marketplace, the company begins to
look further afield for sales opportunities. Caldirola's first steps outside Italy
begin with Germany, then Belgium, Luxembourg and finally with Moscow. It is during
this period that the five-litre "Dama" is born, featuring a neck collar created
personally by Nando Caldirola. The "Dama" enters the history books of wine containers
and although it is a container format that becomes the norm for the Italian consumer,
abroad it becomes the company's trademark. The ex-Soviet Union becomes a popular
business travel destination and Gorbachev celebrates his trip to Italy with a glass
of Caldirola prosecco while the company also begins its sponsorship involvement
in the world of sport. The bottle produced especially for the world-cup in 1990
enters Italian homes and cycling champions cross the streets of Europe featuring
Caldirola's logo on their shirts.
In this, the new century, the entrepreneurial company acquires the success it deserves
- as the Italian leader of modern large-scale retail channels in the glass sector.
However, the first five years of the millennium are a period of great transition
in the family's management of the company; Nando gives up the management of Casa
Vinicola Caldirola has commenced on a new path, guided by several entrepreneurs
who form part of the new company. The new management, which possesses significant
oenological experience, will continue to reach and surpass objectives already reached
and which is in line with the growth of the company's home market, stronger export
growth, the launch of new products in line with market requirements, an excellent
price-quality ratio, and a mix of made-to-measure services conceived specifically
for the large-scale retail sector. The company already boasts significant partnerships
with many Italian wine producers as well as with Consortiums for the purchase of
very high-quality wines. The careful selection of wines from regional vineyards
has led to the expansion of the "La Cacciatora" brand. Environmental Marketing becomes
an important communication choice in favour of environmental sustainability. Sports
sponsorship also becomes a significant medium for brand awareness. The future will
bring new sales opportunities with export as the company's primary objective. If
in Europe the objective has already been achieved with the Caldirola name present
in the most important retail channels, it is America and Asia that are the most
important markets to be explored, with the aim of making Caldirola synonymous with
Italian wines the world over.