🧀 Galbani

Galbani is an Italian cheese and dairy brand founded in 1882 in the Valsassina. It grew out of trade in mountain cheeses, competed with fine French cheeses and gave Italy Bel Paese. Since 2006 Galbani has belonged to the French Lactalis group, so it is no longer a family company. ¹³

The valley and its caves. Egidio Galbani was born in 1858 in Ballabio, to a blacksmith who also traded dairy products in summer. ³ The valley had one key advantage: natural caves at a steady 5–7 °C, where cheese kept and ripened well. ³ The market of Lecco was close by, and the railway linked it to Milan and Bergamo. ³ The family was related to other cheesemakers of the valley, the Locatellis: Egidio's mother and Giovanni Locatelli's wife were sisters. ³

An answer to imports. The same transport also brought foreign cheese: in the 1870s Italy imported four times the value of dairy goods it exported, and soft cheeses arrived from France. ³ At first Galbani only traded, but in 1882 he began making his own robiola and opened a warehouse at Maggianico near the railway. ³ The company says he travelled to France to study brie, camembert and Roquefort. ⁴ From 1892 Galbani cheeses won prizes at exhibitions. ³

Why Melzo. Mountain milk was plentiful only in summer, and the company needed it all year. ³ So Galbani followed the route of the bergamini herders, who wintered on the plain, and rented the Triulza farm at Melzo. ³ From 1898 it had a steam boiler and a refrigeration plant, so the cheese depended less on the mountain caves. ³ The workshop handled 5,000 litres of milk a day. ³

Bel Paese and the big plant. Bel Paese appeared in 1906, named after Antonio Stoppani's book, with the author's portrait on the label. ³⁷ Success called for a true factory, built at Melzo around 1910 with controlled temperatures and its own sales network. ¹³⁴ In 1922 the company made 11,500 quintals of cheese and that same year began building a plant at Certosa di Pavia. ³ In 1924–1925 it started making rindless portion boxes, the future formaggini. ³

The founder leaves. Growth required outside capital: a joint-stock company was formed in 1920, in which the Invernizzis, another cheesemaking family from the valley, took a leading role. ³ In 1926 Galbani left his own company, for reasons that are still not entirely clear. ³ He founded a new business at Robbio that became a rival, and in 1928 he lost the title of honorary president. ³ He died at Ballabio on 5 July 1950. ³

From Santa Lucia to Lactalis. Santa Lucia came out in 1956, according to the company the first industrial mozzarella, and advertising made the slogan "Galbani vuol dire fiducia" famous. ¹ The company joined Danone in 1989, was bought by the BC Partners fund in 2002 and by Lactalis in 2006. ¹⁵ The company archive, covering about a hundred years, is kept in the Melzo library and is open for research. ⁷

What the brand covers today. The site names the lines Bel Paese, Certosa, Galbanino, Santa Lucia and the gorgonzolas Dolcelatte and Gim, along with cured meats, butter and yogurts. ²⁸ Galbani writes of five plants in Italy and a presence in more than 140 countries, and calls itself the world's first brand of Italian cheese. ⁶ These are the company's own words, and no independent check of these claims exists here. ⁶

Why it matters to you. Galbani is a trade mark, not a guarantee of origin or method: among the lines named, only gorgonzola is a protected name. ² So compare a particular cheese rather than the brand. ² The owner is French, although the company itself has five plants in Italy. ⁶ If you are interested in the history, the Melzo archive is open for research. ⁷