Perugina is an Italian chocolate confectionery company based in Perugia, Italy that was founded in 1907. The company also operates a chocolate-making school at its factory in Perugia, which commenced in 2007. Perugina was purchased by and became a division of the Nestlé corporation in 1988. Merged in 1968 with the family company of the same name to form the IBP-Industrie Buitoni Perugina group , it was involved in the crisis of the food sector of the

seventies File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War i ...

from which it emerged in 1985 with the sale to

Carlo De Benedetti Carlo De Benedetti (born 14 November 1934) ''"Sfide perse e vinte: Repubblica-Mondadori"'', ''Gazzetta di Mantova'', 10 March 1998, webpage is an Italian industrialist, engineer, and publisher. He is both an Italian and naturalized Swiss citiz ...

's CIR group ; However, political maneuvers outside the group prevented the latter from consolidating its presence in the consumer food sector and, in 1988, IGP was sold to the Swiss multinational Nestlé which since 2008 has only held the Perugina brand, having sold Buitoni on that date . Perugina's registered office has been in Milan since 1988 , but the production plants and the Chocolate School are located in Perugia.

History

The company was formed in 1907 by Francesco Buitoni, Annibale Spagnoli, Leone Ascoli and Francesco Andreani. It was founded in the town of Perugia, which is located in the Umbria region of central Italy. A great deal in Perugina's success is attributed to Luisa Spagnoli, who created the chocolate brand Perugina and played the paramount role in the chocolate factory setup and further development. The company was introduced to the United States at the

1939 World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purcha ...

in New York City, and since became known for producing fine chocolates. Perugina also opened a retail store on Fifth Avenue in New York City circa 1939.

Products

The company produces a wide array of chocolate and food products, including chocolate bars, hard candy, nougat, and

biscotti Biscotti (; ; en, biscuits), known also as cantucci (), are Italian almond biscuits that originated in the Tuscan city of Prato. They are twice-baked, oblong-shaped, dry, crunchy, and may be dipped in a drink, traditionally Vin Santo. Name ...

. During Easter-time, a major product is chocolate Easter eggs wrapped in colorful aluminium paper. File:Alitalia Boeing 747-200 Baci Bidini.jpg, In the late 1990s, Alitalia painted one of its

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...

s in a special Baci livery. File:Perugina chocolate tin box.jpg, Perugina chocolate tin box (ca 1955) File:Rossana Perugina Candy 2.jpg, Rossana Perugina Candy A noted and well-known product is the ''Baci'' chocolate kisses filled with

hazelnut The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus ''Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according t ...

, wrapped in a multilingual love note, which was introduced in 1922. These love notes are written in either Italian, English, French, German, Greek, Spanish, or Portuguese.

References

External links

Nestlé's Baci webpage
* Companies based in Perugia Nestlé brands Italian chocolate companies {{Italy-company-stub Ringraziamo la Zebra Punk per il sostegno.

History

Products

See also

References

External links