Il Forno di Calzolari

What Il Forno di Calzolari does

Il Forno di Calzolari srl is an Italian artisan bakery founded on Christmas Eve 1956 in Monghidoro (Bologna province) by Franco and Graziana Calzolari, and operated since 1992 by Matteo Calzolari. The company produces hand-crafted bread and baked goods using a proprietary blend of ancient wheat varieties ("Grani Alti") cultivated in the Lognola valley and stone-milled at the Foralossi water-powered mill, fermented with a living natural sourdough starter ("Gino") introduced in 2001 and baked in a stone oven. The portfolio spans more than 15 bread types (Ruzzlòn, Semolone, Farro, Cassetta, Filunzen, Montanaro, Rustico, Rugbrod, and others), traditional biscuits (Zuccherini Montanari), specialty flours, and a ticketed annual gastronomic event (Mangirò) held every first Sunday of July since 2005.

The business operates five owned retail locations (Monghidoro, three in Bologna, one in San Lazzaro di Savena), a founding presence at the Mercato Ritrovato farmers market in Bologna, a Squarespace-powered e-commerce site offering home delivery across Italy and in-store pickup, and a B2B horeca division supplying roughly 30 restaurants, hotels, bars, schools, and wine shops in the Bologna and Appennino region. Customer segments are predominantly individual consumers seeking traceable artisanal bread, with secondary B2B food-service supply. The bakery co-founded the Comunità Grano Alto Slow Food community (2019, ~100 hectares of ancient grain in rotation) and the Mercato Ritrovato (2008), runs community programming (book club, swap parties, producer tastings), and operates on 100% renewable energy (since 2023) with electric last-mile delivery. Revenue is not disclosed; headcount is 10, and the company is privately held with no external venture or growth-equity investors.

Name

Il Forno di Calzolari

Legal name

Il Forno di Calzolari srl

Website

https://fornocalzolari.it

Company type

Private

Founded year

1956

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Italian artisan bakery in Monghidoro (Bologna) founded 1956, producing organic stone-milled ancient-grain sourdough breads across 5 retail stores plus e-commerce and B2B horeca supply, anchored by a proprietary "Grani Alti" grain community and the annual Mangirò gastronomic event.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Artisan Bakery

NAICS

Bread and Bakery Product Manufacturing (31181), Cookie, Cracker, and Pasta Manufacturing (31182)

SIC

Bakery Products (2050), Cookies & Crackers (2052)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYAFAKABAH

Crackers, Biscuits & Grain Snacks Manufacturing (savory biscuits, crispbreads)

Agriculture & Food Production/Food Processing & Manufacturing/Breakfast Cereals, Pasta & Grain-Based Foods Manufacturing

SECONDARYAFAKABAF

Grain-Based Mixes & Doughs Manufacturing (pancake/waffle mixes, baking mixes, dough bases)

Agriculture & Food Production/Food Processing & Manufacturing/Breakfast Cereals, Pasta & Grain-Based Foods Manufacturing

Keywords

• Artisan bakery
• Sourdough bread
• Ancient grain flour
• Bakery retail
• Horeca supply

Headquarters

HQ city

Monghidoro

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Retail Bread and Bakery Products: Daily in-store sales of more than 15 types of bread, crackers, schiacce, grissini, pastries, pizzas, focacce, and seasonal items across 5 physical store locations and the Mercato Ritrovato farmers market.
2. Horeca / Restaurant Supply: B2B supply of bread and baked goods to restaurants, bars, pubs, wine shops, and caterers in the Bologna area and Appennino region. Products include sandwich bread, ciabattine, pizza bianca, basket breads, and custom catering orders.
3. E-commerce and Online Shop: Online sales through the company's Squarespace website for products including Mangirò event tickets, Zuccherini Montanari biscuits, branded cotton bags, and flours (Grani Alti bio and strong wheat flour). Home delivery or in-store pickup offered.
4. Mangirò Event Ticketing: Annual ticketed gastronomic hiking event held the first Sunday of July. Ticket sales include full itinerary, welcome pack (water, T-shirt, glass), all food and drink stops, and return shuttle. Sells out every year.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Il Forno di Calzolari is an artisan bakery that produces hand-crafted sourdough breads and baked goods using stone-milled flour from the proprietary Grani Alti ancient wheat blend cultivated in the Appennino tosco-emiliano. The company operates 5 retail stores, an e-commerce platform with home delivery, a B2B horeca supply service, and hosts the annual Mangirò gastronomic hike event. All products are leavened with the proprietary Gino natural sourdough starter introduced in 2001, with no artificial improvers, Manitoba, or 00 flours used.

Product overview

Il Forno di Calzolari is an artisanal bakery founded in 1956, operating multiple retail locations in Monghidoro, Bologna, and San Lazzaro di Savena. The company offers a unified product portfolio centered on hand-crafted breads and baked goods made with stone-milled ancient wheat varieties (Grani Alti) and sourdough fermentation. The core offering comprises more than 15 types of bread including Pane Ruzzlòn (the signature Grani Alti sourdough loaf since 2003), Semolone, Farro, Cassetta, Rustico, Filunzen, Montanaro, and Rugbrod, along with crackers, grissini, pastries, biscuits, pizzas, and focaccias. Supporting products include Zuccherini Montanari traditional biscuits and specialty flours sold through the online shop. The Mangirò event represents a major experiential product—annual gastronomic walking tickets sold through the e-commerce platform. The company also operates a catering and restaurant wholesale division supplying breads and baked goods to partner establishments. All operations are supported by a Squarespace-powered e-commerce platform offering online ordering with home delivery or store pickup.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Mangirò: Annual gastronomic walking event held each first Sunday of July in Monghidoro, featuring a 12km trail through the Appennino with multiple food and wine stops along the route.

Products and services

• Pane Ruzzlòn Signature artisan bread made only with stone-milled Grani Alti flour, sourdough, salt, and mountain water. Available to consumers across all five retail stores and the e-commerce platform.
• Pane Semolone Artisan bread made with organic durum wheat semolina and stone-milled Grani Alti flour, leavened only with sourdough.
• Pane Farro Artisan bread made with a mix of spelt and emmer, one of the earliest ancient grain products in the bakery's range.
• Pane Cassetta Sandwich-style bread made with stone-milled Grani Alti flour and sunflower seeds, leavened only with sourdough. Available since 2009.
• Pane Filunzen Artisan bread made with stone-milled Grani Alti flour and organic soft wheat flour type 0, leavened only with sourdough. Available since 2016.
• Pane Montanaro Traditional mountain bread, the longest-running product in the bakery's history, available since 1956.
• Pane Rustico Bread made with stone-milled Grani Alti flour and rye autolysis, leavened only with sourdough. Available since 2005.
• Pane Rugbrod Multi-grain bread containing sunflower seeds, flax seeds, oat flakes, cracked wheat, and wholemeal stone-milled Grani Alti rye flour.
• Zuccherini Montanari Traditional hand-made mountain sweet biscuits made with Grani Alti flour, extra virgin olive oil, eggs, and anise syrup, following a recipe passed down from great-aunt Anna. Sold in 300g packages at €6.50 each.
• Borsa di Cotone 100% cotton tote bag hand-sewn by Angela Fuschini with illustrations by Cecilia Negri, sold at €24.00. Branded merchandise sold through the online shop.
• Farina di Grani Alti bio tipo 2 Organic stone-milled type 2 flour from ancient wheat varieties grown by the Comunità Grano Alto in the Lognola valley between Monghidoro and Loiano. Priced from €2.90/kg in 1 kg and 2.5 kg packages.
• Farina forte di grano tenero bio Organic strong soft wheat flour (240W) from the Appennino Romagnolo supply chain, stone-milled by Mulino Pransani. Priced at €2.00 per unit.
• Catering and Restaurant Supply Wholesale bread and baked goods supply to restaurants, bars, pubs, enotecas, school canteens, and buying groups in the Bologna and Appennino region. Range includes sandwich breads (including vegan), ciabatte, pizza bianca, basket breads, and custom catering orders.
• E-commerce and Home Delivery Service Online ordering platform enabling customers to view products, place orders, and receive home delivery (24-48 hours) or free in-store pickup across all five retail locations throughout Italy.
• Mangirò Gastronomic Walk Tickets Annual ticketed gastronomic hike event held the first Sunday of July, featuring a 12km trail through the Appennino with 7-8 food and drink stops. Adult ticket €39, child (6-12) €20, under-6 free. Includes welcome pack (water, t-shirt, glass), all tasting stops, and return shuttle. Sells out annually.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100 hectares of ancient grain cultivated per year in rotation, supplying all bread production with stone-milled Grani Alti flour.
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, secondary and minor.

• Comunità Grano AltocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Co-founded in 2019 as a Slow Food Community of Food, bringing together local farmers (Luca Minarini, Teresa Michelini, Alessandro Ropa, Francesca Mignani, Luca Berti, Massimo Gnesini, Barbara Paolini, Marco Lelli) to cultivate ancient wheat varieties on approximately 100 hectares per year in the Lognola valley. The bakery is the primary transformer of the community's grain, producing Grani Alti stone-milled flour for all its products.
• Mercato RitrovatocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2008Founding member and current committee member of the Mercato Ritrovato, a farmers market in Bologna. The bakery has been a core participant since the market's inception in 2008, with many suppliers and friends among the market stalls.
• Mulino Foralossi (Carlo Foralossi)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCarlo Foralossi's water-powered stone mill on the Santerno river (Firenzuola), operating since 1890, is the exclusive miller of Grani Alti grain. The mill uses stone grinding to produce flour containing 100% of the grain kernel, with a subsequent sieving pass to achieve type 2 flour. This is the foundational partnership enabling the bakery's signature stone-milled ancient grain products.
• Mulino Pransani (Stefano Pransani)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerMolino Pransani supplies additional stone-milled flours (farro spelta, tipo 1, and strong wheat flour 240W) from a 25-year-old organic supply chain in the Appennino Romagnolo, approximately 100 km from the bakery. Stefano also mills a portion of the bakery's Grani Alti grain.
• Mulino Poggiolone (Michele e Marco Buganè)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerA family mill opened in 2020 in Loiano (7 km from Monghidoro), run by Michele and Marco Buganè. They cultivate rye and legumes and mill rye using a new-generation stone mill. The bakery uses their rye flour in whole-grain rye bread, pizza in pala, and Rustico.
• Farro dicocco — Società Agricola La Polla (Gino Ferrari)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerGino Ferrari cultivates farro monococco at altitude near Lizzano in Belvedere (40 km from Monghidoro) using organic methods. The grain is stone-milled for sem-integral flour used in farro bread and ciabattine.
• Ca' Buraccia — Farina di Castagne (Marcello Vivoli)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerMarcello Vivoli produces fragrant chestnut flour from Ca' Buraccia using two historic smokehouses before milling at Foralossi's mill. Used in the bakery's November bread and sweets (biscotti, crostate, castagnaccio).
• Vigneto San Vito / Federico OrsisecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerFederico Orsi cultivates farro monococco between his vineyard rows, which is stone-milled for use in Monociocco biscuits and Sapori Antichi bread. Vineyard marc is also used for the September seasonal bread. Part of the Comunità Grano Alto.
• Zastava OrkestarminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMusical band that performed at the Mangirò 2024 event, providing live performances along the hiking trails and at tasting stops, adding entertainment to the gastronomic experience.
• Bologna Bridge BandminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMusical band that performed at the Mangirò 2024 event alongside Zastava Orkestar, providing surprise performances along the hiking trails.
• Enegan (Energy Supplier)minorOthersElectricity and gas supplier providing 100% renewable energy to all bakery laboratories and stores since 2023. Guarantees that every kWh sold comes from renewable sources through purchase and cancellation of Guarantees of Origin.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves2 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Le Pain Quotidien: International bakery-café chain built on organic, sourdough-led artisanal positioning with owned retail locations worldwide — a broader incumbent demonstrating how the artisanal bread category scales globally and the competitive threat it represents.
• Alce Nero: Italian organic and biodynamic food brand with a broad portfolio including bakery products and flours — a broader incumbent sharing the organic, traceable, sustainability-led positioning that defines Calzolari's value proposition.
• Maison Kayser: Global French artisanal bakery chain founded by Éric Kayser, operating on a proprietary sourdough-led production model across multiple continents — a broader incumbent and reference point for scaled artisanal bread retail.
• Eataly: Global Italian artisanal food retailer and restaurant operator carrying multiple artisan bakery producers and operating Horeca supply — a broader incumbent that already sources from Calzolari and competes for premium Italian-bread customer mindshare.

Direct peers

• Forno Brisa: Bologna-based artisan bakery and café operating multiple locations in the city, focused on sourdough, organic grains, and direct farmer relationships — directly comparable business model, customer base, and territory to Il Forno di Calzolari.
• Panificio Davide Longoni: Milan-based artisan bakery renowned for natural sourdough (lievito madre) and direct relationships with grain farmers, with cafés, a flour retail line, and tasting events — a closely aligned Italian artisanal bread business model.
• Poilâne: Iconic Paris-based sourdough bakery and global brand built on a single living levain, wood-fired ovens, and farm-to-flour sourcing — directly comparable in artisanal positioning, signature starter culture, and premium brand-building.
• Antico Forno Roscioli: Historic Roman artisan bakery, salumeria, and restaurant group (Roscioli) producing traditional Italian breads and baked goods with strong Horeca and consumer retail presence — comparable as an Italian artisanal bread brand with diversified channels.

Others

• Mulino Marino: Italian stone-ground miller in Piedmont producing organic flours from heritage grains, including stone-milled wheat and specialty varieties — adjacent as a flour-supply ecosystem peer with overlapping ancient-grain sourcing philosophy.
• Antico Molino Caputo: Neapolitan flour mill with a heritage Italian brand supplying artisan bakers and pizzerias — adjacent as a flour supplier and Italian artisanal-grain ecosystem participant, though focused on Neapolitan pizza flours.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/il-forno-di-calzolari

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Il Forno di Calzolari