History
Italian brothers Ambrosio, Felipe and Julio Terrabusi arrived in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. They founded a company, "Terrabusi Hermanos",[8] in 1911 to produce biscuits. The company set a plant on Sadi Carnot street, employing 25 people. Terrabusi produced 5 tons of biscuits per month. In 1919, the company moved to a 25,000 m2 factory on San José street also in Buenos Aires,[9] By those years, the company launched "Express", a successful line of crackers.[9]
The company launched some products that became not only a success but landmarks of Terrabusi, such as "Tita", "Manon", "Rhodesia", and "Melba". The success of some of its products helped the company increase its sales to the point that Terrabusi relegated rival company rival Bagley as the main food manufacturer in Argentina. By 1958, the company popularised the slogan "Dígale sí a Terrabusi" ("Say 'yes' to Terrabusi") that remained for decades.[10]
In 1963, with the leadership of Carlos Terrabusi and Gilberto Montagna Terrabusi,[9] the company moved its business to the "Establecimiento Modelo Terrabusi" (Terrabusi model plant) in the city of General Pacheco.[11] Terrabusi then launched "Don Felipe", a pasta brand named after one of the three founders of the firm.[9]
In 1981, American conglomerate Nabisco started doing business in Argentina after merging with Standard International. Nabisco acquired Terrabusi in 1994 for US$361 million.[11] After the purchase, Carlos Terrabusi and Montagna retired to go on agricultural sector and horse breeding.[9] In 1996, other three food companies, Mayco, Capri, and Vizzolini, were added to Nabisco Royal Argentina Inc.
In 2001, Kraft Foods Inc. bought Nabisco for US$14,000 million, taking over all the Terrabusi line of products. Nabisco would then acquire other local food companies (mainly cookies manufacturers) such as Canale (popular brand of biscuits and owner of Cerealitas cracker brand, managed by Grupo Macri that had losses for AR$14,014,113 in 1998)[12] Mayco, Capri,[13] Royal, and Tasti.[14] As of, Mondelez International controls Terrabusi operations in Argentina.[15]
The Terrabusi's pasta line was acquired by local Molinos Río de la Plata (owned by the Pérez Companc family) to Mondelez in 2014.[16] Molinos paid AR$ 130,7 million not only for the use of the Terrabusi brand but for a manufacturing plant in Tres Arroyos.[17] The agreement also included other pasta brands such as Vizzolini, Don Felipe, and Canale, for which Molinos paid other 15 million.[18]
