(22 October 1876 - 17 April 1954) was an Italian
entrepreneur and
philanthropist, a prominent member of the Morassutti
family mostly known for his farsighted entrepreneurial choice of creating a network of shops, a veritable
supply chain of long-lived
consumer goods. In 1886, at the age of ten, Federico was sent to a
boarding school in
Cremona, and from there abroad, to
Grenoble and
Ljubljana, to perfect his education and gain experience in trade-related matters. During that time the family company was experiencing a period of uncertainty. In 1898, at the death of his father, the
management of the company passed to Federico, twenty-two years old at that time, who initially devoted himself to consolidating the financial situation in order to grow by expanding from regional borders and by launching the company into the national
market. The "
Great War" considerably reduce the company's commercial activity, particularly in the retail sector but during the
post-war years it was relaunched. New deposits were opened, first in
Bologna and later in
Naples placing the company at the forefront of the national panorama of the distribution sector. In 1922 The Paolo Morassutti was transformed into a collective company formed by Federico as the
managing director and by his
brothers Giovanni Paolo, Domenico and Antonio. From there to a few years, however, in conjunction with the general crisis of the
thirties, different views emerge between the brothers. In the late thirties the company was booming and at the beginning of the fifties the company employed more than 500
employees, located in 21 stores. In 1952 the company itself changed its structure becoming a modern
joint-stock company. During
The Fifties, The Paolo Morassutti company, with a capital of 210 million lire, employed about 570 employees located in 24 settlements (20 stores and 4 depots) spread throughout the country: from
Veneto to
Lazio, from
Liguria to
Emilia, from
Lombardy to
Campania. Federico Morassutti died in
Padua in the spring of 1954 after establishing his
family business among the leading companies in the wholesaler distribution sector of Italy during the second half of the 20th century. == Paolo Morassutti ==