Bertolli Olive Oil and Pasta Sauces

Bertolli is a historic Italian brand founded in 1865 in Lucca, Tuscany, by Francesco Bertolli and his wife, Caterina. Originally a small grocery store selling olive oil, it became one of the first brands to export Italian oil internationally. Over the decades, the brand expanded into sauces, spreads, and frozen meals.

Today, the ownership of the Bertolli brand is split among different global corporations based on product categories. The olive oil business is owned by the Spanish multinational Deoleo S.A., which is one of the largest olive oil bottlers in the world. The pasta sauce division is owned by Mizkan Holdings, a Japanese company that acquired it from Unilever in 2014. Meanwhile, the spreads (margarine) business is owned by Upfield (backed by KKR), following Unilever’s divestment of its spreads unit. Consequently, manufacturing occurs in various countries including Italy, Spain, and the United States, depending on the specific product line and regional market.