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The
Peyrano family and chocolate in Turin
A
Torinese family
Towards
the
turn of
the
19th century, Antonio (born in 1880) was working as an apprentice
with the firm Baratti & Milano, attending
at the same time an evening class at the “Cavour” school
of
chemistry
(not
to be mixed up with the high school bearing the same
name).
After achieving his certificate he continued attending the
school
as an experimenter.
In 1912 he started a new experience with the Capobianchi firm at Ancona, where
he was taken on as an expert in sweets. He moved to Ancona along with his sisters
Lucia and Giovanna, as well as with his nephew Giacomo.
Lucia
was also taken on in the same firm as supervisor for
the wrapping of sweets, carried out manually by twenty
young girls. Capitalizing on this experience, Lucia returned
to Turin at the beginning of 1915 and started up production
and sale of sweets in the current-day premises of the
Peyrano firm. However, she was forced to stop her business
because of the war.
In 1917 Antonio, Giovanna and Giacomo jr. returned to Turin.
In 1919, after the end of the war, Lucia Peyrano’s firm resumed production
and sale of sweets with the help of Antonio and of the other family members.
However, competition from the large industrial producers, specialized in this
sector and equipped with costly machines, convinced Antonio to put his stakes
on another product: chocolate.
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