Barilla: one of its flagship products caused it to lose thousands and thousands of euros. Here’s what happened.
Barilla is one of the most prominent Italian companies in our country’s economy. A multinational in the food sector that operates mainly in the dried pasta market, but also in bakery products, flour, bread and even ready-made sauces. In short, a great variety of products that are enjoying great success within the Italian market.
Founded in Padua in 1877 by Pietro Barilla sr, descendant of a family of bakers. The business was started mainly for the production of bread and pasta, only later did it evolve into the multinational we all know today. It was the 1908 when the business expanded and two years later a pasta factory with a continuous production oven was created.
Here is where Barilla’s history unfolded, which still continues to fascinate a good portion of Italians today. First bread, then the attention shifted to the production of egg pasta, to the point that it itself was a stylized egg.
The company has been able to overcome the numerous economic and social crises that any business, whether small or large, can encounter. Currently, another fracture has opened up within the company, given by events that have followed one another and seen it as the protagonist.
They call it a cookie contest
The one in which Barilla finds itself impaled is also called the biscuit war. In this regard, we reached the second round, which unfortunately saw the company overcome under the blows of its opponent, namely the Tedesco e Sapori Artigianali company. All is started in 2023 when the Parma company asked the Brescia court for the marketing by the rival company of some of its biscuits such as Tondolotti, Amiconi, Raggi di Sole and others.
The reason for the controversy was that Barilla believed that the biscuits in question were the exact copy of some of its biscuits that we all know such as Gocciole Pavesi, Campagnole and Abbracci.
Here is the judge’s decision
The judge in first instance decided that part of Barilla’s requests could also be accepted and therefore prohibited the marketing of the Gocciolotti, Maramao and Amiconi, perfect duplicates of Gocciole, Pan di Stelle and Abbracci. Furthermore, the court prohibited the use of elements on the packaging that could refer to Barilla and obviously to Mulino Bianco.
But the remaining part of the requests was rejected taking into account that the biscuit shapes have now been popularized.
