Barilla objects to the Atkins diet lumping pasta in with all white carbohydrates, who are accused as leading to obesity.

Barilla says Pasta is "an excellent delivery system for some really good foods," such as vegetables, olive oil, fish and meat. "It takes a long time to fully digest and avoids the insulin-loading issues that lead to obesity. Unfortunately, it's been lumped in with all white carbs by Atkins...".

Barilla has bested all the regional pasta companies, Ronzoni in the Northeast, Prince in Boston and Chicago, Mueller's in the Southeast, Creamette in the Midwest, American Beauty and Golden Grain in the West, and is now lined up against national seller American Italian Pasta Co (AIPC- There are NO Italians or Italian Americans in the hierarchy of AIPC ).

The company uses high-protein durum wheat — much of it from Arizona — that traps starch inside its pasta. As a result, Barilla noodles are less prone to sticking and more resistant to overcooking.

But while Barilla might seem more Italian than its U.S. rivals, all but the tortellini and lasagna it sells in this market are made at its $135 million plant in Ames, Iowa.

"Some people say the pasta we make in America isn't as good as the pasta we make in Italy. It is just not true," Barilla says. If anything, the noodles are better than in his father's and grandfather's day, "because we can buy better raw materials, including the best wheat, which is from North America."

Barilla emblazons its boxes with "Italy's No. 1 pasta," but they don't say that their American pasta is made in Ames, Iowa. Barilla's Italian and U.S. plants use the same ingredients, methods and equipment.

These days, much of Barilla's attention is devoted to its new line of premium sauces, the fastest-growing brand on the market. The company's sauces are made with diced tomatoes, olive oil and only a little tomato paste — no soybean oil, flavorings or preservatives. They're aimed at consumers now paying $2.50 to $3.50 a jar for Classico, Bertolli and Newman's Own. The sauce market, worth $1.4 billion a year at retail, is even bigger than the $1.1 billion market in dry pasta.
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BARILLA  COOKS UP A STORM IN US AISLES

USA TODAY
By James Cox
November 9, 2003

NEW YORK — Italian pastamaker Barilla threw its noodles into the crowded U.S. market in 1996. They boiled to the top just three years later.

Having bested Ronzoni, San Giorgio, Mueller's and other leading brands, the family-owned company is taking on a new foe: the carb-shunning gospel of deceased diet guru Robert Atkins.

In February, Barilla is co-sponsoring a conference that will take some of the world's top food and nutrition scientists to Rome. Their message: Atkins — who advocated a sharply reduced intake of pasta and bread, and no carbohydrates for certain periods — was wrong. Atkins' advice on nutrition "defies common sense," says Sergio Pereira, vice president of marketing at Barilla America. "It goes against a huge body of knowledge if you look at health, longevity and disease rates."

Barilla's frontal assault on Atkins bears some hallmarks of its aggressive entry into the U.S. pasta market. Italy's biggest noodlemaker barged into U.S grocery stores in the late '90s and rewrote the rules for sales of boxed dry pasta.

First, Barilla pushed for national distribution in a category of regional favorites — Ronzoni in the Northeast, Prince in Boston and Chicago, Mueller's in the Southeast, Creamette in the Midwest, American Beauty and Golden Grain on the West Coast. By being first to go nationwide, Barilla drew interest from Wal-Mart, Costco and other giant retailers that preferred doing business with national brands.

Next, Barilla decided to charge the same price for most of its pasta "cuts." With its penne, rigatoni and other noodles priced the same, Barilla was able to use a single coupon or ad to promote most of its product line.

These days, Barilla commands premium prices in the supermarket, often selling for 5% to 10% more than its U.S. rivals and slightly less than DeCecco, the leading Italian import. For the 12 months ended in September, a period that was flat for the market overall, the company posted 17% sales growth in pasta.

What's behind Barilla's rise? "Superior quality," says Paul Davis, president of Barilla America. The company uses high-protein durum wheat — much of it from Arizona — that traps starch inside its pasta. As a result, Barilla noodles are less prone to sticking and more resistant to overcooking, Davis says.

That's not the entire story.

Serving an image

Barilla has seized on America's fascination with Italian culture, cooking and lifestyle. The company's TV ads trumpet its product as "the choice of Italy" and make masterful use of Italian imagery. The spots are 30-second romances — an American woman makes smoldering eye contact with a mysterious Italian hunk who serves up pasta — all set to lush vocals by tenor Andrea Bocelli.

"We were looking for a fantasy," Pereira says. "You have a mom at home with a 3-year-old running around with a full diaper. Where did all the romance go? Here's a commercial that brings a romantic notion to life."

But while Barilla might seem more Italian than its U.S. rivals, all but the tortellini and lasagna it sells in this market are made at its $135 million plant in Ames, Iowa.

"There absolutely is confusion" about Barilla's origin among consumers, says Dan Trott, executive vice president of sales and marketing at American Italian Pasta Co., known as AIPC, which makes Mueller's and Golden Grain.

Barilla does little to discourage consumers from thinking its product is somehow more authentic. Its boxes are emblazoned with "Italy's No. 1 pasta," but they don't say where the contents are made. Its main English-language Web site makes no mention of Ames.

Any confusion is "obviously not intentional," Pereira says.

Barilla's Italian and U.S. plants use the same ingredients, methods and equipment, says Luca Barilla, who, with brothers Guido and Paolo, runs the business started in Parma, Italy, by their great-grandfather in 1877.

"Some people say the pasta we make in America isn't as good as the pasta we make in Italy. It is just not true," Barilla says. If anything, the noodles are better than in his father's and grandfather's day, "because we can buy better raw materials, including the best wheat, which is from North America."

The dashing Barilla brothers, all in their 40s, have made the family business global and more professional. Under them, Barilla has published consolidated financial results, raised money in Italy's bond market, purchased Germany's largest baked-goods company and acquired pasta plants in Mexico, Greece and other countries. The Ames plant was the centerpiece of a plan by Guido Barilla, the Boston College-educated chairman, to make Barilla a global brand, Davis says.

From rigatoni to riches

There almost was no business to globalize. The brothers' father, Pietro, sold a majority stake to U.S. conglomerate W.R. Grace in 1971. Pietro's brother wanted to cash out, and Italian businesses were becoming targets of violent labor strikes and attacks by the ultra-leftist Red Brigades terrorist group

"The day after he sold it, he started to think (of) how he could buy it back," Luca Barilla says. In 1979, Grace sold the company back to Pietro.

In studying the U.S. market during the mid-1990s, one critical question for the brothers was how much to bend Barilla to American tastes, which leaned heavily toward simple spaghetti and elbows. In the end, they decided to stick with the noodles they knew, from cupped gnocchi and bow-tied farfalle to grooved rigatoni and angel hair capellini.

There are a few exceptions. Barilla makes a smooth penne it markets as mostaccioli in Chicago, St. Louis and other Midwest markets, even though mostaccioli is an American name and doesn't exist in Italy. Barilla substituted rotini for the smaller fusilli corkscrews, judging them better suited for pasta salads. Penne rigate noodles are actually pennete, thinner in diameter, which cuts cooking time and makes them less chewy.

Chaos in the pasta category has aided Barilla. Hershey Foods, which owned Ronzoni and San Giorgio, has exited the market, along with Borden Foods, which owned Creamette and Prince. Those brands are now part of financially troubled New World Pasta, owned by an investment firm that is expected to sell at some point.

Barilla's share gains have come mainly from sagging sales of New World pasta, says AIPC's Trott. Barilla "has done a good job — there's no question about that," but it has grown by expanding distribution and adding new cuts of pasta, rather than knocking off regional leaders on their home turf, he says.

Ultimately, expect a battle between Barilla and AIPC. Kansas City-based AIPC's strategy is to offer supermarkets a complete line of pastas — a powerhouse regional brand such as Mueller's, the retailer's store brand, and Italian imports and specialty products such as gluten-free pasta, soy-based pasta and Atkins' line of low-carb pasta. In addition, AIPC holds a wide lead over its rivals in food service, providing pasta for restaurants, schools, hospitals, catering halls and other institutions.

These days, much of Barilla's attention is devoted to its new line of premium sauces, the fastest-growing brand on the market. The company's sauces are made with diced tomatoes, olive oil and only a little tomato paste — no soybean oil, flavorings or preservatives. They're aimed at consumers now paying $2.50 to $3.50 a jar for Classico, Bertolli and Newman's Own.

The sauce market, worth $1.4 billion a year at retail, is even bigger than the $1.1 billion market in dry pasta. Barilla's sauce sales grew more than 13% over the year that ended in September, vs. 4.7% growth for market leader Classico, which has more than 1½ times the sauce sales.

"We're not yet the category leader, but I think last year we were the fastest-growing," Davis says.

Barilla also has made inroads with stuffed pastas, which it imports from Italy. Its shelf-stable tortellini and tortelloni — tire-shaped noodles with cheese, asparagus and other fillings — was the first stuffed pasta that didn't need refrigeration.

Beyond that, Barilla is introducing a line of imported pasta, Voiello, aimed at chefs and specialty stores. It is intended to compete against DeCecco at the priciest end of the market.

Home in Parma, the capital of Italy's "food valley," the brothers have ambitious plans, too. In March, they will open Academia Barilla, a culinary institute devoted to the study and teaching of Italian gastronomy.

The academy's mission is to become the world's leading authority on Italian cuisine. Already, the institute has assembled recipes, cookbooks and other materials — some dating to the 1600s — that constitute one of the largest bodies of historical knowledge about Italian food and cooking.

What to do about Atkins

The decision to take on Atkins came after Oldways Preservation Trust, a food-issues think tank, approached Barilla, AIPC and others in the industry about sponsoring the Rome conference.

Boston-based Oldways — which advocates a Mediterranean-style diet rich in pasta and other whole grains, along with vegetables, fruit and olive oil — was looking for a way to say, "Pasta fights back," says Dun Gifford, its president.

Pasta is "an excellent delivery system for some really good foods," such as vegetables, olive oil, fish and meat, Gifford says. "It takes a long time to fully digest and avoids the insulin-loading issues that lead to obesity. Unfortunately, it's been lumped in with all white carbs by Atkins and these other jerks."

Taking on Atkins won't be easy. The self-styled nutritionist died in April, but he left a business empire and millions of believers in his high-protein, low-carb message.

Atkins' three books have sold more than 18 million copies in the USA. His second title, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, has been on The New York Times' paperback best-seller list for 334 weeks and is the No. 1 book in the advice category. Atkins for Life, published in January, has been on the hardcover list for 39 weeks.

Davis says the company was eager to sponsor the Rome conference but will take a back seat to keep the gathering from looking like a commercial for Barilla.

"We can't ignore Atkins," he says. "Our view is (that) the biggest gap here is education. We're going to get top nutritionists and food scientists in the world to set the record straight about pasta."

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