The best loved cookie recipe from the Castiglione delle Stiviere plant
31 May 2023
“We make the most popular products here, historic Italian breakfast foods that are symbolic of our way of doing business. We want to consistently bake high quality products that are attentive to people and the environment. This is more than just a job for us, it is an opportunity for us and others to grow, bringing people joy in the way we know best: with good food”.
This is how Cinzia Bassi, Director of the Castiglione delle Stiviere plant (near Mantua, Italy), describes what is currently our Group's biggest cookie factory.
She was speaking during the celebrations held to mark the first forty years of the plant, during which a major new investment plan was announced and the plant’s role in the development and well-being of the local area and community was reaffirmed.
ALL THE FIGURES OF THE BIGGEST COOKIE FACTORY IN ITALY
Castiglione delle Stiviere is one of our Group’s key plants for the bakery sector, with 11 production lines that generate over 100 different references, delivering over one hundred tons of products a year.
Italy’s best-selling cookies, Gocciole, are created here, along with the most lovedMulino Bianco products, including Macine, Galletti, Tarallucci and Buongrano (the first to be made with sustainable soft wheat), as well as crackers and the famous Michetti, not forgetting Pan di Stelle and GranCerealeproducts.
In our cookie factory, the same attention is paid to the quality of ingredients as people do for their own families: sourdough, fresh eggs from free-range hens, cocoa from responsible supply chains, high quality fresh Italian milk, 100% Italian yogurt and jams, sugar from the best certified supply chains and soft wheat flour from sustainable agriculture.
Production is also sustainable: in ten years our “oven” in Castiglione delle Stiviere has reduced water consumption by 18% and electricity use by 10%. Finally, in a factory where ingredients and flavorings are the same as those used in home cooking, technology guarantees the highest quality standards. For example, an optical vision pilot system checks that products are the right shape, a “Sensory Evaluation” structure analyzes the aroma, scent and appearance of the product, while modern infrared instruments control humidity.
AN INVESTMENT IN INNOVATION AND THE FUTURE
Satisfaction with the results achieved, combined with the determination to reach new goals, is the basis for the further investments announced for the plant. Amounting to 12.6 million euros in total, these are focused on the Mulino Bianco Crackers, Pavesi and Mulino Bianco Dry Breads and cookie packaging lines.
For the first of these, the snack production line will be expanded with the installation of specific systems to create new savory baked products. The second aspect relates to the site's most important product category: cookies. The investment will increase packaging capacity with the installation of a new line producing smaller packs to satisfy market demands.
The renewed commitment we have made, proudly comments Cinzia Bassi, “demonstrates how and to what extent we want to look to the future”.
PUTTING PEOPLE AT THE CENTRE
Creating employment in the area is, of course, the first effective way to bring well-being to the community, but it definitely isn't the only one because, right from the start, our Castiglione plant has been a catalyst for activities carried out for the benefit of the surrounding area. Recent examples include two projects intended to defend gender equality and diversity: the plant is partnered with a football association for mentally disabled children registered with the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and supports the Mantua Red Telephone service run by an association against violence against women that holds meetings in companies to provide information on this painful and significant issue.
But the longest-lasting collaboration is with the local Red Cross: today there are 200 Red Cross volunteers working in Castiglione delle Stiviere, Castel Goffredo, Medole and Guidizzolo. To mark the celebration held for the first forty years of the plant, our company donated an emergency ambulance for medical transport to the organization. A gesture that supplements the product donations our Group regularly makes to local organizations committed to helping the neediest.
Over these first forty years, our Castiglione delle Stiviere plant has become a symbol of how innovation, quality and know-how, combined with social responsibility, can build a sustainable business model attentive to the needs of the area in which it operates.
Borrowing the words of Pietro Barilla, "Everything is done for the future, go ahead with courage": Castiglione delle Stiviere is a forward-looking organization that pursues quality and supports people.
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