12 thousand square metres for two plants, 150,000 litres of Italian milk processed every day, 5,000 tons of cheese produced each year: these are the numbers of Mauri, a 100% Italian company specialized in dairy production since 1920, now in its 4th generation of the family with Nicoletta Merlo, founder’s great-granddaughter.
This company of Pasturo, a few kilometres from Lecco, has been able to hold firmly its link with the Lombard territory of Valsassina, focusing on the know-how of the local dairy tradition and on high quality standards, with a strong focus on innovation. For example a few years ago the launch of two new products ‘Caprì Mauri’ and ‘Caprì light’, fresh cheeses produced with goat's or cow’s milk, has given birth to a new market segment imitated by everybody.
Mauri was founded in 1920 by Emilio Mauri, and only 9 years after the craft activity became a real business, with the new plant in Pasturo, an area which is naturally predisposed to the production and ageing of cheese, thanks to its special air and the presence of oxbows, the natural caves characterized by typical hot springs consisting of moist air, able to confer to this cheese unique flavour and personality.
Nicoletta Merlo
Today the company is one of the few in this sector whose property is 100% Italian. Nicoletta Merlo, born in 1966, says: «Running the company is first of all a private matter». Nicoletta is Emilio Mauri’s great-granddaughter and joined the company as CEO when she was 22 year old only. She took her father’s place, as he suddenly passed away. She had no experience and had just begun her economic studies, but began to run their company, trying to learn as much as possible from the people who surrounded her. She had only one certainty: the desire to carry on her family’s name. This awareness gave her the strength which kept her from giving in to the offerings coming from the many multinational companies which continuously proposed requests for assignment. And she also found the courage to jump into an adventure that today pays off, representing a working reality known and appreciated abroad, too. The choices this company makes are dictated by respect for tradition and naturalness. Today Nicoletta Merlo is at the head of a reality which counts 100 employees, alongside with a team of young executives, and she is giving to her company a new imprint, offering handcrafted and high quality products: «I would like to help our consumers to know better our reality, because we represent a quality company and we work hardly». 
Mauri cheese around the world
Mauri products, including Bontàleggio, Bontàzola in both sweet and spicy versions, Bonquartì (all strictly DOP), and still ‘Duetto’ (a mix mascarpone and gorgonzola), as well as cheeses prepared with fresh goat's milk, are meeting a great success all over the world.
Gorgonzola, Taleggio, Duetto, and Mascarpone are the most popular products not only in the USA, Russia, Europe (especially Sweden, Great Britain, Holland, and Spain), but also in such new markets as Canada, Australia, and the Far East, where Korea and Hong Kong are today among the major importing Countries. As for the USA market, Emilio Mauri inc. has been created directly in the USA in order to take care of a market where the Italian DOP products are becoming increasingly popular. In the past two years, the products Mauri arrived up to Santo Domingo and Cuba, as well as South Africa and Vietnam.
