With Gaetano Aiello’s story, we are not just sharing our founder’s story. We are telling the story of a company renowned for its coffee’s excellence and quality. We are telling the story of our roasting tradition.
1931, Gaetano Aiello was born in Cosenza
Gaetano was not a regular boy; his curiosity and adventurous spirit has defined him since his childhood. Kind and outgoing, he was known for his cheerful personality. These traits made him the great groundbreaker he later became.
Innovation has always been his passion and he had a very serious but creative approach to it. This would later defined his innovative approach to business. He loved marketing when marketing wasn’t the big deal it is today. He always followed his passions, but he knew that in order to achieve his goals, he needed stay grounded.
How Gaetano Aiello’s business embodies his spirit
If you think about the big names in the Italian coffee industry today, you cannot leave Gaetano Aiello’s out.
He was able to establish a great business,and to pass his love for coffee down to his kids and grandkids. He was also able to pass down his innovative way of doing business. His family felt his passion as well as his employees, business partners and final customers.
The 3rd family generation manages Caffè Aiello today: they run the business in 2021 with the same entrepreneurial spirit as their grandfather did in the ’70s. This proactive and open approach allowed them to go through great and bad times. But never losing the purposeful spirit that made a little roasting firm into the great business it is today.
A company that is constantly innovating and shows how Gaetano was able to shape his business, which incarnates today his main values. Dedication and balance are the main elements characterizing people working at Caffè Aiello. They always reach for the stars but they never underestimate their history, traditions and artisanal roots.
Gaetano loved his land, Calabria, but he always felt that the great coffee he was so passionate about should have been shared with the rest of the world. Going international has always been his mission, proving him, once again, far ahead of time.
He prepared the path for great innovation in technology and IT integrations when this kind of approach was not common.
Thanks to his initial approach, the company has always been able to be one step ahead of its competitors. Unfortunately, he isn’t here with us anymore to witness his own great success. He can’t receive praise from all over the world and to see his coffee being sold through digital platforms. But we know that if he was still here he would be saying to us a warm “Bravi! Good Job!”, making all of us proud of being part of his extended family.
What made a made-in-Calabria business a great success
All great dreams deserve to turn into reality. That’s why in 1967 Gaetano founded his company: Industria Caffè Aiello Gaetano. He always wanted to manage every aspect of the business firsthand. He took care of the beans selection and the production processes, making sure only exceptional blends were produced.
It’s thanks to his intuitions that we still use a medium roasting process, the most appropriate and respectful method for the raw material. He also attributed a specific process for each kind of bean.
Gaetano’s courage made him build his business in an environment and time where it was not easy.
But this never stopped Gaetano. Since the beginning, he became more and more popular, becoming an ever-present brand in people’s households. Starting from the mid ’80s, the company would employ an oak wood roaster. This method that was able to craft the product with the passion and expertise characterizing the company until today.
1984 : the opening of a new plant
From Gaetano Aiello’s own words: “A specific roasting is reserved for each Aiello blend. Through our standards we aim to the top, and we won’t stop. The smile our product puts on our customers and partners’ face makes our hard work worth it. We’ll keep doing our best for them”
That brand-new plant and the innovative technology that came with it, allowed the production capability to grow a lot. It allowed to meet the growing request for coffee in a timely manner, although never compromising the coffee’s quality. At Caffè Aiello we love being challenged, and the fast-evolving coffee industry was cut out for us.
Prior to his business’ launch, Gaetano often travelled to Asia and Southern America, looking for the best coffee beans. Today we travel on his behalf, but we know he is always with us visiting new coffee plantations.
The 90s came and with them the boom of the hospitality sector. Specifically for it, a new product was born: the ground coffee in brick for the traditional “moka”, considered by many Italians as the “proper tool to have a great coffee”.
Gaetano Aiello, a silent man
Gaetano Aiello wasn’t a talker, he always said “do good but do it quietly”. We are proud of him, and of the immense support he always showed to the community.
He always helped someone in need, he contributed to hospitals and charity organizations and he always supported local sport clubs. It’s thanks to this approach that we have been able to build on our already developed CSR.
It was with great sadness that his family, employees and the entire community acknowledged his death on March, 10th 2003. Our will is to honour his generous, creative and great personality by carrying on his business and his passion, never forgetting the immense lessons he gave us, for which we’ll be forever grateful.
