Five generations in one mountain town
From a stone mill on the Verde river to a pasta loved in more than 100 countries — and still owned by the family that started it.
Quick answer
De Cecco traces back to an 1831 stone mill founded by Nicola Antonio De Cecco in Fara San Martino, Abruzzo. In 1886 his son Filippo Giovanni De Cecco founded the pasta factory, and in 1889 invented a low-temperature drying system that freed pasta-making from the weather. Today De Cecco is the third-largest pasta producer in the world, still owned across the third to fifth generations of the family.
A long, unbroken line
Nicola Antonio De Cecco founds a stone mill on the Verde river in Fara San Martino, milling flour from local wheat.
His son Filippo Giovanni De Cecco opens the pasta factory — the official birth of De Cecco pasta.
Don Filippo invents a low-temperature artificial drying system, freeing pasta from sun-drying and the weather.
A country girl carrying wheat sheaves becomes the company's trademark — still recognised today.
After wartime destruction, the factory is rebuilt and growth accelerates, with a new focus on international markets.
A second pasta factory opens in Pescara to meet rising demand.
Production is modernised and doubled in Fara San Martino; a dedicated sales network is built; oil production begins (1986).
A new mill processing 1,100 tonnes of wheat a day and the 1997 Ortona plant scale the business further.
De Cecco is the world's third-largest pasta producer, with FY2024 revenue of €652 million and around 1,200 employees — still family-owned.
Owned by the people whose name is on the box.
De Cecco has never left the family. The parent company is owned by 24 shareholders spanning the third to the fifth generations, across three family branches — and the headquarters is still in Fara San Martino, where it all began.
Founder Filippo Giovanni De Cecco believed that "prosperity is preserved with durability; it develops and is passed on to others." Nearly a century and a half later, that is still the plan.
Our responsibility →Taste the difference patience makes.
Find De Cecco in more than 100 countries, or get in touch with our team.