Our story
During a very difficult historical period, dominated by the insecurity that the First World War left behind, Carlo Alessandria and his wife Maria Teresa, motivated also by the economic difficulties of that time, open a small-town delicatessen shop in San Rocco di Cherasca, in Alba.
This is the beginning of the history of the Alessandria family that, within a short time, made himself known on the surrounding hills too, from where more and more people came to buy their gastronomic delights.
Due to the increase of the sales, the delicatessen shop moved to Ricca d’Alba, in the municipality of Diano d’Alba, just a few steps from the old workshop.
Willing to satisfy the growing demand over time, Carlo and Maria Teresa built a shed on the back of the workshop dedicated to the swine slaughter, coming exclusively from local farms. Their main aim was to produce themselves all the delights on sale. That is how the Salumificio Alessandria was born.
With the constant growing of sales in the shop, it starts the wholesale distribution.
It was also for this reason that in 1967 the old workshop had to renew itself and make way for the birth of the Salumificio Subalpino spa. This new name was, and today remains, a reference to the Langhe territory, located at the foothills of the Alps.
During those years, Carlo and Maria Teresa’s sons and one daughter-in-law joined the family activity, doing also deliveries in the neighboring villages by a little truck. The large number of prestigious awards that the family received in this first period are a quite significative demonstration of their efforts, and of the quality of their products.
The name of Salumificio Subalpino was already known all over the North of Italy, that led to the necessity of building a new centre and renew the vehicle fleet to ship throughout the whole Italian territory.
The establishment covers 12.000 sqm of which initially only 5.000 were indoor: this new buildings allowed to slaughter up to 540 swine per week and produce a large range of raw salami and baked hams.
A few years later, in 1981, Carlo Alessandria suddenly died, turning the reins of the Salumificio Subalpino to his sons that gathered successfully their father’s legacy, being already well-placed inside the company.
In the early ‘90s the company decided to focus the production on salami only, starting buying the swine cuts they needed from local and selected butchers. They also restructured the work spaces to adapted them to the new productive needs, assigning the whole building to the production of salami and hams, always in accordance with CEE standards. At that time the company had about thirty employees and there were already selling and shipping in the entire national area and in some other EU countries.
Their catalogue was expanded up to about fifty products, both raw salami and baked hams and other delights, in order to meet the increasing demand. The aim has never changed: produce high quality salami using carefully selected and high quality prime materials and, above all, keeping strong the connection with Langhe territory.
From early 2000 to the present
In 2003 the company gained the ISO 9001 international certification of Quality Management System (QMS), aiming to conquer a new market share.
During those years both Carlo Alessandria’s sons passed away, so the third generation stepped in and immediately demonstrated the willing of keeping alive their grandfather’s dream: to provide the more and more demanding consumers the best products but always respecting the tradition. Reliability, modern facilities and strict sanitary controls are the values that always marked the company, guaranteeing the highest products quality according to the genuine Langhe’s culture.
As the years went by, the passion for salami was passed down to the fourth and current generation. Today the company has a catalogue of about seventy excellent products, both raw salami and cooked cuts, sold throughout the Italian territory and in about twenty countries abroad.