From the 60s up now

The history of Porrini Franco s.p.a. has its roots in the environmental and historical context of its hosting territory. The scenery is Casorate Sempione, a little town located in the hinterland of the city of Varese and surrounded by the characteristic Lombard moor, which represents the ideal horse-riding environment thanks to its wide level clearings, its thick woods and its clayey soil.

Horse lovers have been selecting this little town in the province of Varese as one of their privileged destinations since the beginning of the last century when Casorate Sempione could already boast of its own race-course (named Bocconi), of the racing course S. Uberto used for eventing and of tens of stables. The horses bred in the little town were English-breed race horses, fox hunting horses and saddle-horses which were often rode by famous riders and aristocrats. Even King Umberto I and the princess Yolanda of Savoy were enchanted by Casorate Sempione, where they rode in the woods while their officers performed riding races and training sessions.

In the 60s Ilario Porrini understood the huge potential of the area where he was living and decided, with intelligent far-sightedness, to take advantage of the situation by accepting the requests coming from the local stables to nourish horses with high quality fodder. Ilario started to market whole cereals by cooperating with well-known sector brands such as Ferruzzi, Sagnan, Moretti and Monfer. In a short time his activity consolidated so much as to be deemed as absolutely prestigious. Ilario imported the most refined cereals from France, Spain and Argentina and resold them to the best stables in Lombardy and to the race-course of San Siro. The lucky intuition of Ilario was developed by his son Franco, who started to work with his father at the age of 18. With a bit of courageous audacity this young man decided to buy the first tank truck in order to offer a more diversified service to his customers.

The cooperation between Franco and Giorgio Braghini gave further incentives to an activity whose features resembled more and more those of an achieved industrial organization; in fact thanks to his precious selling skills Giorgio Braghini has contributed to spread the name of the fodders by Porrini on the national territory.

In the meantime the company has got ready to offer to its customers a wider range of products in order to meet the specific needs of each single horse kind. The company now uses new whole cereal flaking machines and it has started to import shavings for beddings, which are currently one of the products by Porrini most appreciated by the market.

Today the company of Ilario is still managed by Franco and his heirs, who - thanks to their passion, entrepreneurial intuition and love for horses - keep on presenting Porrini as a brand of undisputed quality.