It all began on a train. At the beginning of the 1970s, the train that took the young Peppino Mandara from the college in Sorrento to the creamery of his uncle Francesco, a true pioneer of the “white gold” in Campania. Very characteristic and perhaps even a little magical places where milk and its derivatives take shape and flavor, including delicious ice creams, and the famous whipped cream. Real delicacies of the time.

Peppino Mandara, the future owner of a company that will conquer international markets and link its name to some of the most famous brands in the agri-food industry, as soon as he can “runs” from school and runs to the city. He wants to learn but above all he wants to experiment, Peppino. He comes from a family with solid roots in the dairy world: in Agerola, on the Lattari Mountains (a name that is a bit of a sign of destiny) the Mandaras produce the best fior di latte in the area. But Peppino is fascinated by what Uncle Francesco is creating in the capital: a chain of creameries that offer the general public those small “jewels of flavor” that only the lucky ones who live in the production locations know.

From Mondragone the best traditional buffalo mozzarella

In the “bottega”, Peppino learns the art of the master cheesemakers who transform milk into the best mozzarella in the world and into many other “creations”. And, at the same time, he participated in the transformation of Uncle Francesco’s chain of creams which, close to the eighties, came to have eight stores in Naples, Rome and Milan. As the company grows, so do the production requirements. The factory, which, in the meantime, had dedicated itself exclusively to the supply of creams, moved to the “homeland” of buffalo mozzarella, the Domitian coast. In Mondragone, to be exact. And this is where Peppino Mandara’s real adventure begins. This is how the best buffalo mozzarella from Campania is born!

Mandara: tradition and innovation

That train that ran along the Sorrento coast and the coast of the Golden Mile, up to Naples, is now a faded memory. Peppino Mandara has put his family’s teachings to good use and developed a special intuition for innovation. An intuition that will allow him to follow commercial paths ten years ahead of the dairy market. In 1983, Peppino took over the factory in Mondragone from his uncle Francesco. Under his leadership, “Ilc Mandara” continued to grow and definitively left the borders of Campania to establish itself as a market leader.

Impresa Mandara, a large extended family

Every now and then, however, it happens that Peppino thinks back to that train. And so the idea was born, unprecedented for that time, to send fresh mozzarella to the north using the fastest railway lines of the time. It’s a success. In Milan, Turin and throughout the North, kilos and kilos of buffalo mozzarella, bocconcini, braids, ricotta and provolone arrive every day. Goodness never experienced before.

In the meantime, the Mondragone factory has become an industrial reality in all respects, but the management, the attention to detail, the attention of Peppino and his collaborators are the same as always. The company is a large extended family.

Mandara products: not only buffalo mozzarella

In 1997, as in all success stories, the moment of marriage arrived: “Ilc Mandara” married a large group specialized in the marketing of typical food products: Alival S.p.A. A partnership that allows Mandara to focus on production by outsourcing its own distribution activities, which now also have ramifications abroad. These were the years of Peppino’s thousand “inventions”: mozzarella in the brick, which made him famous throughout Italy and Europe; the new product lines. And much more.