In the heart of Bologna, on Via Galliera, a renovated old workshop has given rise to a bakery reinventing the way of making bread and making it together. A business that has become a constellation of other businesses over time. A bit like the delicious smell of bread spreading. Giampaolo Colletti interviews Pasquale Polito, founder of Forno Brisa and now CEO of Breaders Srl Società Benefit for FARE INSIEME.
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
There are stories you smell before you even see or hear them. Like the one I'm about to tell you. It has the delicious smell of freshly baked bread and contains much more than what meets the eye. Because this story is made of hands kneading and hearts beating in unison. Because from an oven, a constellation was born. From a dough, a network. And from an ancient gesture – kneading, waiting, sharing – one of the most surprising entrepreneurial experiences of recent years was born. This story begins in Bologna, in that city that knows how to be a community. We are on Via Galliera, in the historic centre. Here, ten years ago, two young people lit an oven and, ultimately, ignited a new business idea. It is from this street, paved with porticos and good intentions, that become concrete actions to be emulated that the story of Forno Brisa, an artisanal workshop founded by Pasquale Polito and Davide Sarti, begins. It all started in an old renovated workshop, with little money and lots of ideas. In a short time, the city fell in love with the project, and today that leavened dough has become Breaders, a multi-brand group with over €22 million in revenue, 28 stores, and more than 300 people involved.
The history of the company. But let's stay in that bakery in Bologna, with the desire to do things well and do them together. «We were two students passionate about food and culture. I was a geographer, Davide a communicator. We studied the subject extensively, both theoretically and practically. We experimented and kneaded. And from that dough, our business was born. We wanted to create a bakery that was a place of relationships, warmth, and care. Ultimately, bread has always been this: a human gesture before being a product.» So says Polito, 38 years old, born in Abruzzo and living in Bologna. In the heart of Emilia, where business is often a collective endeavour, Forno Brisa quickly became a symbol of a different way of working: open, shared, plural, even pop in its most beautiful sense. A small workshop capable of combining craftsmanship and vision, with the ambition of demonstrating that one can grow without losing one's identity. «After the first bakery, we opened a second, then a third. At a certain point, we said to ourselves: wow, we're building a company! But we didn't want to lose our soul. So we started studying organisational models, economics, and management: for us, the business became a testing ground, just like baking», Polito recalls. From there, the transformation: from a shop to a network of artisan businesses. Breaders was born, a certified B-Corp benefit company that brings together some of the best Italian bakeries: Forno Brisa in Bologna, Davide Longoni in Milan, Mamm in Udine, Mercato del Pane in Pescara, Pandefrà in Senigallia. Or even more. It makes them talk to each other as a team. «It's not a merger, but an alliance. Everyone maintains their own identity, but we share tools, skills, and vision. It's a new way of growing, more cooperative than competitive», says Polito. Today, Breaders is a small district of bread and ideas, an artisanal public company that integrates different supply chains: bread from the fields to the mill, speciality coffee from the roaster to the cup, chocolate from the bean to the bar. It all starts with a belief: value comes from transparency and control of the raw materials. This is why in Abruzzo, in Nocciano, the birthplace of Pasquale, the Collective Mill was born. A bread school will soon be built here, combining agriculture, milling, and baking in a unique training programme in the country. «We want to train a new generation of conscious artisans, capable of thinking like entrepreneurs and acting as a community. The future of food lies there: in the ability to bond minds and hands, culture and business», says Polito.
The strength of the ecosystem. The group, currently experiencing a rapid expansion, has just launched its third round of crowd-funding with a target of €7.5 million to finance new openings and acquisitions, including Europe. After raising €1.2 million in 2020 and €4.3 million in 2023, this new campaign confirms the distributed enterprise model that engages investors, collaborators, and customers in a single, shared vision of growth. But beyond the numbers, the essence remains. Breaders is an ecosystem that speaks of care, culture, and community. The care for people and territories. The culture of doing well. The community as a fertile ground where ideas grow. It is also a happy enterprise, in the most concrete sense of the word. «For us, happiness means working in a place where you can grow, learn, and make mistakes. A happy enterprise is not a perfect one, but a living one. And like bread, it only lives if you knead it every day.» Bologna, once again, serves as a backdrop and becomes an icon: a city of workshops and cooperatives, of knowledge and of savoir-faire. Here, bread is a story, an enterprise, and a social glue. Here, the idea of a young man from Abruzzo, in love with food and people, is transformed into a project that combines the art of baking, economics, and vision. Because doing business – like making bread – is an act of faith: it takes time, patience, and dedication. That perseverance that produces the most beautiful and ultimately the best things.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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