As an American, I've had the products, I've eaten the food, but I would love to learn a little bit more about maybe the culture at the company and maybe the owners of the company, what they're like, what you think motivates them.

This decision from the government led the Grace company to ask the senior managers of Barilla, who were Italian and had the privilege to work with them for a long time, to think about what to do next and what kind of diversification was possible. They decided to launch the bakery business in Italy to produce biscuits, mini cakes, rusks, and so on. That decision had a tremendous impact on the history of the company. When Mr. Pietro Barilla bought back the company in 1979, after 11 years, he found this jewel called Mulino Bianco, which means white mill, the bakery part of the business. It represented more than 50% of net sales and much more than 50% of the company's profit. I'm telling you this history because it was not a continuous path through the Barilla family. That period of 11 years had an incredible impact on the success and growth of the company itself.

As a privately held company, do the three brothers own 100% of the company?

There's not a secret, but when their father had to buy back the company, he found a friend based in Switzerland, his name is Anda-Bührle, who gave him 50% of the money he needed to buy back the company. They're still friends, the families, and they still own 15% of the company. Not a lot of people know that. The company is in the hands of the family. They attend the board. They're interested in the success of the company. Barilla is a profitable company. As a company with around €5 billion of net sales with roughly 12%, 13%, 14% EBITDA year by year, all invested in the company to improve the production facilities we have or to make new acquisitions.