President Kirk Trofholz describes how Barilla became America’s favorite brand of pasta.

Dr. Robert Atkins’ diet trimmed millions of waistlines; at the height of its popularity in 2003 and 2004, it’s estimated one in 11 Americans was “doing Atkins.” Simultaneously, an unwitting entity became a great deal slimmer—the US pasta industry.

As the low-carb craze took hold, pasta makers struggled to keep their heads above water. In droves, consumers skipped the pasta aisle to get to the meat section. Even New World Pasta, parent of such popular brands as Ronzoni, Prince, and San Giorgio, was forced to claim bankruptcy.

Kirk Trofholz, President

In the midst of the weight-loss sensation and the category’s steep decline, one pasta maker bucked the trend. Barilla America, the US arm of Italy’s largest food producer, The Barilla Group, actually increased sales by 9% in 2004. According to president Kirk Trofholz, Barilla continued to grow in the US because the company stayed true to its historic Italian roots.

“Many of our competitors introduced a low-carb pasta in the Atkins era to try to address the change in diet concerns of American consumers. We didn’t do that,” he said. “We’re a carbohydrate company. We understand carbs are a critical part of a person’s diet. Rather than try to capitalize on the short-term opportunity called low carb, we stayed focused on doing what’s right for the long term, and that’s making the highest quality authentic Italian pasta.”

Not only did the company continue to grow by doing what it does best, it developed an even healthier product in the process. Barilla Plus, which contains Omega 3, double the fiber of regular pasta, and 40% more protein, was introduced in 2005. It’s quickly become 8% of Barilla’s total business, helping the company seize 24% of the total US pasta market. And the folks at the corporate office in Bannockburn, Illinois, think Barilla America is just scratching the surface.

Authentic Italian
In 1877, Pietro Barilla opened up shop in Parma, Italy, with little more than a table, kneading trough and a small oven. Roughly 120 years later, Pietro’s great grandchildren Guido, Luca, and Paolo began exporting Italy’s best selling brand of pasta to the US.

By 1997, Barilla America was building its first pasta-producing plant in Ames, Iowa. At the same time, the parent company began building a “twin” plant in Foggia, Italy—the exact processes and standards used to create the family’s pasta in Italy would be used in the US. “Walk into our Ames plant and any plant in Italy, and you can’t tell the difference,” Trofholz said. “We’ve taken everything we’ve learned from producing pasta in Italy and incorporated it in our plants in the US.”

Through an extensive cross-training program, experts from Barilla’s Italian kitchens traveled to the US to teach their American counterparts the family’s generations-old pasta making techniques. The Ames plant began running in 1998, and by 1999 the company opened all lines of production. That same year, Barilla became the number one brand of pasta in America—just three years after its US launch.

“We are an authentic Italian brand,” Trofholz said. “We focus on using the best quality wheat and having a very consistent milling process—the exact same way it’s done in Italy. We communicate to the consumer through our marketing by letting them know when they buy Barilla, they’re getting an authentic Italian experience, and they’re getting the best possible pasta they can buy in the world.”

Brand building
Communicating its message to consumers in America is something Barilla has done exceptionally well. Not since Prince taught New Englanders that “Wednesday is Prince spaghetti day” in the 1970s has a pasta maker so successfully marketed its products to a wide audience. And Barilla’s campaign makes past efforts appear Lilliputian.

Today, Andrea Bocelli’s tenor voice carries “The Choice of Italy” to television sets nationwide. Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis makes Barilla her choice, too, in an extensive print magazine campaign. And for the past five years, Barilla has produced an astounding 90% of the nation’s pasta advertising.

Online, consumers can find dozens of recipes and cooking and entertaining tips at Barilla America’s homepage, subscribe to a newsletter, and check out some interesting special offers. For instance, in February, Barilla teamed with De Laurentiis and television’s “Iron Chef” Mario Batali to create a celebrity cookbook.

Ten celebrities, including actors Kristen Davis, Harrison Ford, and Ashley Judd, contributed their favorite pasta meals. De Laurentiis and Batali edited the recipes into easy cooking instructions and compiled them in The Celebrity Pasta Lovers’ Cookbook. The cost to the home chef? Zero. The cookbook was available for free download from the Barilla Web site. Better still, Barilla contributed $1 for every download to America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization.

“The first nine days we had it online, we had 100,000 downloads,” Trofholz said. “We increased awareness of hunger in America and raised $100,000 to fight it. At the same time, a lot of people learned all about Barilla and the products we offer.”

Family values
As Barilla’s products continue to fly off the shelves, the company is responding to an ever-increasing demand and laying the foundation for future growth with a new pasta plant and distribution center in Avon, New York.

Construction of the $96 million facility is well underway, and when fully operational in June, Barilla projects it will produce 100,000 tons of pasta in Avon annually. It’s part of an aggressive growth strategy in which Barilla America hopes to emulate the success of its Italian counterpart; in Italy, Barilla dominates 40% of the pasta market.

“We think we have a lot of growth left in the US,” Trofholz said. “There are no specific plans yet, but to grow as we’d like in the US, we’ll have to go beyond pasta and sauce. Whatever we decide, our focus will remain on the long term. We’ll always strive to produce the highest quality product we can, and stay true to the values of the Barilla family.”