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Caffarel

Caffarel is one of the oldest Italian chocolate manufacturers: founded in Turin in the first half of the nineteenth century by a Waldensian family from the Val Pellice, it has tied its name to the gianduiotto, the boat-shaped chocolate made of cocoa and hazelnut that has become one of the city's gastronomic symbols.[1] Since the 1960s it has manufactured in Luserna San Giovanni, in the Metropolitan City of Turin,[2] and belongs to the Swiss group Lindt & Sprüngli, to which it was sold at the end of the 1990s.[3]

Waldensian origins

The founder, Paul Caffarel, was born in 1784 in San Giovanni, in the Val Pellice, into a Waldensian family of some financial means; like other Waldensians he had to Italianize his surname to "Caffarelli" until 1848, when Waldensians regained the right to use their original surnames. On 1 May 1832, according to the reconstruction by historian Paride Rugafiori, he bought at Valdocco, from fellow believer Giacomo Watzenborn, a former tannery powered by a waterwheel on the Ceronda canal.[1] The building had already become a chocolate factory between 1819 and 1822 on the initiative of Giovanni Bianchini, a Swiss "confectioner" who had invented a machine for grinding cocoa; for this reason Rugafiori considers the date of 1826, traditionally cited by the company as its founding year, to be of doubtful reliability.[1] The entry on MuseoTorino offers a somewhat different chronology: the purchase of the factory from the Watzembourns in 1828 and Paolo Caffarel's takeover from Bianchini, who died in 1837, with the creation of the firm "Caffarell padre e figlio".[2]

The plant, located between what are now Via Giacinto Carena and Via Avet, dated back to the 1820s and was expanded several times: in 1881 Pietro Paolo Caffarel requested permission to "complete the building annexed to his chocolate-making works facing Via Carena".[4]

The gianduiotto and the alliance with Prochet

Upon Paul's death in 1845, his sons Pietro Paolo and Giacomo Isidoro took over. After Italian Unification the company grew despite the price of cocoa, an imported raw material subject to heavy taxes.[1] The response was a new product: a soft paste in which part of the cocoa was replaced by the "tonda gentile" hazelnut from the Langhe, shaped into a small boat and wrapped in tin foil. According to Rugafiori the gianduiotto, named after Gianduja, the Turinese carnival mask, was born in 1865 for Carnival; the MuseoTorino entry instead places the start of its commercial spread in 1869 and attributes its invention to Michele Prochet.[1][2]

The Prochet family joined the Caffarels in 1866, when Milca, daughter of Pietro Paolo, married Matteo Prochet; in 1877 her brother Michele became a partner of Pietro Paolo and his nephew Ernesto Caffarel, together with Carlo Aymar, in the general partnership "Caffarel Prochet & C.".[1] The early 1880s were difficult, with accounting disputes between Ernesto Caffarel and his partners, but the firm retained its prestige and won recognition at the 1884 Turin National Exhibition.[1]

From the city to the Val Pellice

On 29 November 1942 air raids struck the factory: an incendiary device damaged the roof and window frames, twelve rooms were destroyed, and the façade bearing the inscription "Fabbrica di cioccolato" (Chocolate Factory) was wrecked. Partial restoration began in June 1945; the building was demolished in the 1970s and a low commercial building and dance hall now stand in its place.[4] In the 1960s production had been moved to Luserna San Giovanni, in the family's valley of origin.[2]

Joining the Lindt group

In September 1997 Lindt & Sprüngli announced the purchase of Caffarel from the Audiberti and Bachstadt families, without disclosing the price; the Luserna firm had revenues at the time of 85 billion lire, and the deal brought the Swiss group's share of the Italian chocolate market from 6.5 to 8-10 percent.[5] Antonio Bulgheroni, chairman and CEO of Lindt's Italian subsidiary, promised that little would change for the Piedmontese brand:[5]

"As little as possible. It is our firm intention to keep the two sales forces completely separate and the two marketing strategies clearly distinct."

Antonio Bulgheroni, "MF Milano Finanza", 1997

Carl Bachstadt-Malan, CEO and co-owner until 1998, led the sale; at his death in 2016, the plant covered 20,000 square meters and employed nearly 400 people.[3]

Crisis and revival

In June 2021 the company, citing negative results worsened by the pandemic, informed trade unions of extraordinary layoffs (cassa integrazione straordinaria) for ninety full-time employees, with the risk of further job losses; the Flai Cgil union proposed solidarity contracts and early retirements as alternatives to dismissals.[6] In the autumn of the same year it was announced that Caffarel would be merged into Lindt & Sprüngli S.p.A. starting in January 2022, with a commitment to keep the Luserna site active.[7]

A phase of investment followed: fifty million euros over two years and a new twelve-million-euro plan, with a hazelnut-roasting plant inaugurated in October 2024 mainly for the gianduiotto, made with Nocciola Piemonte IGP hazelnuts. During the same period the plant doubled its output in five years and exports more than 80 percent of production; on 29 November 2024 it was visited by the president of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio.[8] "Years ago Caffarel went through a period of crisis; it later recovered, following the agreement with Lindt," summarized Duilio Canale, mayor of Luserna, forecasting fifty to sixty new jobs and changes to Via Monte Granero to allow truck traffic.[9] The felling of the lime trees on that street ended up before the administrative courts: after a referral to the Council of State, which had sent the case back to the TAR, in May 2026 the TAR declared the opponents' appeal inadmissible, ruling in favor of the City.[10]

The dispute over the PGI

Since 2017 a committee of Piedmontese producers has been working toward the recognition of the protected geographical indication "Giandujotto di Torino", under specifications calling for 30 to 45 percent roasted PGI hazelnuts, at least 25 percent cocoa, and the exclusion of powdered milk. Objections from Lindt & Sprüngli, owner of the Caffarel brand, long held up the process; the group was granted a fifteen-year transitional period to continue using the name on products already on the market, and on 15 April 2026 the Turin Chamber of Commerce announced the closure of the objection period and the forwarding of the file to the European Commission.[11] In June 2026, however, the group challenged before the TAR of Lazio the ministerial decree of 23 March 2026, arguing that the protected name overlaps with its own registered trademark "Gianduia 1865 - L'autentico Gianduiotto di Torino".[12]

In November 2025, to mark the gianduiotto's 160th anniversary, Caffarel set up an installation shaped like a chocolate at the corner of Via Lagrange and Via Marcello Soleri; "The Gianduiotto is much more than a chocolate: it represents a cultural and emotional heritage that unites generations," said marketing director Valeria Ungaro.[13]

Pages linking here

Sources

  1. Imprese nel tempo – Camera di commercio di Torino
  2. MuseoTorino
  3. L'Eco del Chisone — 21 September 2016
  4. MuseoTorino
  5. MF Milano Finanza — 24 September 1997
  6. Il Fatto Quotidiano — 24 June 2021
  7. Corriere di Saluzzo — 2 October 2021
  8. ANSA — 28 November 2024
  9. L'Eco del Chisone — 16 July 2025
  10. L'Eco del Chisone — 13 May 2026
  11. Camera di commercio di Torino
  12. ANSA — 4 June 2026
  13. ANSA — 29 November 2025

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