Perugina facts for kids

Nestlé-Perugina in Perugia, Italy

Perugina is a famous Italian company that makes delicious chocolates and candies. It started in 1907 in a city called Perugia, in Italy. They even have a special chocolate-making school at their factory in Perugia, which opened in 2007.

In 1988, a big company called Nestlé bought Perugina, and it became part of their family of brands. Before that, Perugina had joined with another family company, Buitoni, in 1968 to form a group called IBP-Industrie Buitoni Perugina. This group faced some tough times in the 1970s. By 1985, it was sold to another company. Eventually, in 1988, the whole IBP group was sold to Nestlé. Since 2008, Nestlé has only kept the Perugina brand.

Even though Nestlé owns Perugina, the main office for Perugina has been in Milan since 1988. However, all the chocolate-making factories and the special Chocolate School are still located in Perugia.

The Sweet History of Perugina

The Perugina company was started in 1907 by four people: Francesco Buitoni, Annibale Spagnoli, Leone Ascoli, and Francesco Andreani. They began their sweet adventure in the town of Perugia, which is in the Umbria region of central Italy. A lot of Perugina's early success is thanks to Luisa Spagnoli. She was very important in creating the Perugina chocolate brand and helped set up and grow the chocolate factory.

Perugina chocolates became known in the United States at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. After that, they became famous for making high-quality chocolates. Around 1939, Perugina also opened its own store on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Delicious Perugina Products

Perugina makes many different kinds of chocolate and food items. These include chocolate bars, hard candies, nougat, and biscotti (a type of cookie). Around Easter, one of their most popular products is chocolate Easter eggs. These eggs are wrapped in bright, colorful aluminum paper.

A very famous and well-loved product from Perugina is the Baci chocolate kisses. "Baci" means "kisses" in Italian. These chocolates are filled with hazelnut and are wrapped in a special paper that has a love note written in many languages. These notes can be in Italian, English, French, German, Greek, Spanish, or Portuguese. The Baci chocolates were first introduced in 1922.

Images for kids

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  In the late 1990s, Alitalia painted one of its Boeing 747s in a special Baci design.

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  Perugina chocolate tin box (around 1955)

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  Rossana Perugina Candy

See also

• List of bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers

External links

• Nestlé's Baci webpage

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