How many aperitifs have we sipped eating the legendary Saclà olives? Knowing the history of this Made in Italy company, now famous worldwide, will certainly make them even tastier!
Saclà, a leader in pickles and preserves, is successful because of Lorenzo Ercole, an enlightened and extraordinarily talented entrepreneur who, with a good dose of understatement, liked to describe himself as ‘an average lucky man from Asti’. Appointed Cavaliere del Lavoro in 1997 by Scalfaro, in October 2022, on his 25th year of membership of the Order, he was received at Quirinale by Sergio Mattarella.
A life for the company
No surprises here. Lorenzo Ercole was the CEO of the family business for 32 years and its President for 28 years. He has dedicated his entire life to growing the company founded in 1939 by his father, Secondo Ercole, and his beloved mother, Piera Campanella.
The idea behind Saclà was to make Tanaro Valley vegetables available to consumers all year round. The company name did not initially have an accent, as ‘Sacla’ originally stood for ‘Società Anonima Commercio Lavorazioni Alimentari’.
After a deep crisis caused by World War II and the 1948 Piedmont flood, Saclà was transformed from a small family business into a nationwide industry in the boom years, thanks to Lorenzo Ercole’s talent.
Passion and innovation
Lorenzo had the idea to import glass jars with Twist-Off caps from America. These caps are made of composite materials. The outer shell is metal, while an inner film made of a different material ensures the seal and protects the food. Their characteristic is to adhere perfectly to the glass thread, thus allowing ‘canning without food tasting like canned food’. The idea of patenting ‘olives with a hole’, which are easy to eat because they are pitted, also bears Lorenzo Ercole’s mark, as does the idea of investing in advertising by adding the accent to Saclà to launch the famous claim ‘OlivOlì OlivOlà Olive Saclà’.
In the 1990s, the company began to internationalise, opening branches in the UK, France and Germany.
Agriculture at the core
Lorenzo Ercole would have liked agriculture to have more weight in our country: ‘In Italy, we have forgotten the land, and little attention is paid to agriculture, which is instead the most important source of our wealth.‘ When he left the position of CEO (which he had held since 1981) in 2013, his daughter Chiara picked up the baton and committed herself to carry on the values in which her father deeply believed: the pursuit of quality, love for the Asti region and for his employees, respect for the environment, and a passion for sport and the sea.
Today, F.lli Saclà Spa, based in Asti, is the market leader in the pickles and preserves sector. It has a turnover of EUR 140 million, 200 employees, and exports its products to 70 countries.
Congratulations to those whose talent and passion have contributed to creating the Made in Italy myth worldwide!
Learn about other outstanding Italian enogastronomic products.