Principe was founded in 1945 by Stefano Dukcevich and his wife Carolina, who, after enduring the horrors of war and the tough regime of communist collectivism, left their small village in Slavonia and came to Trieste in search of fortune.
In Trieste, Stefano rented a warehouse where he made “luganighe di cragno” (typical local sausages) and Smoked hams. In his warehouse in Via Lazzaretto Vecchio the processes of boning, mincing and grinding were hand-made, and the meat was smoked in the yard, in spite of the neighbours' obvious protests. In 1949, Stefano moved to a larger place. The business was increasingly successful, and he was surrounded by a small group of highly-skilled workers who later became a pillar of the local food industry. Again, in 1956 he moved to the industrial area of Trieste, and the workers themselves constructed the necessary equipment. Thus, in the premises of a former lamp factory, the first modern sausage industry was created in Trieste. The products reflected the typical local Habsburg food tradition: Vienna sausages, Smoked ham and smoked bacon.
Sales took off, the Italian economy was recovering, and the banks were finally slackening the reins. The eldest son, Mario, was sent to Austria and Germany for training in the technologies of the best producers. In those years of hyper-activity, the European production of sausages passed from a “domestic” to a large-scale dimension, particularly after the launching of the first vacuum-packing technologies.
This new packing technique paved the way for an enlargement of potential selling areas, including the whole of northern Italy and for the exploitation of food large-scale distribution, at the very moment when supermarkets were being opened all over the national territory.
However, this was not enough for Stefano Dukcevich: he was looking for new horizons. He eventually discovered San Daniele, and this changed his life. He bought the land he needed to build the factory and invested all his money in the initiative. His farsightedness went even further: he designed the factory following new revolutionary criteria, to prevail over his competitors by means of technological innovation. Thanks to automatic moving and especially to air-conditioning, the salting process — which for centuries had only been possible in cold months — could be carried out all year long. Thus, the risk of waste due to sudden climate changes was finally overcome. 8 April 1970, the new San Daniele factory — named Principe — started processing its first ham.
It was the end of an era: 25 years after the beginning of his activity, Stefano Dukcevich handed the helm of the Company to his son Mario, who became Managing Director.
Mario's leadership brought a series of transformations: the factories of San Daniele and Trieste were renewed and enlarged, and the quality-price ratio of Vienna sausages was so improved that the Company succeeded in exporting them even to Austria and Germany, the two great historical producers.
During their fifty-year history, Dukcevich and then Principe have been an example of professionalism for generations of people working in the food industry. However, the size and complexity of today's market have faced the Company with a choice: either to take a step backwards and work on a virtually local basis, or to make a qualitative leap and widen the Company's horizons. Quite naturally, the second possibility has been chosen.
THE THIRD GENERATION:
The year 1995 saw the beginning of the activity of Stefano and Carolina's grandchildren. Vladimir went through the necessary training in the secrets of sales and production: he started as a worker, then became employee, export manager and finally trade manager at the age of 30. Two years later, Paola, after taking a degree and a period of training in an international advertising agency, became Communication and Development Manager in the family's Company.
1999 was marked by the first take-over: King's—the famous food industry specialised in the production of San Daniele ham and Tyrol smoked ham — is back in Italian hands. Thanks to Principe's management and experience, a few months were enough to bring King's back to its past splendour.
Thus, the “Gruppo Principe” is born, with different but interesting prospects for the future in an increasingly fragmented market, in which only the big groups can withstand large-scale distribution policies and win the match.
San Daniele: The Prosciutto Capital of Italy and the World
The town of San Daniele in the Italian province of Friuli has been renowned for centuries for the quality of its prosciutto. Located in the foothills of the Dolomites (the Italian Alps), San Daniele has the ideal microclimate for air-curing meat. Cool winds off of the mountain mingle with warm breezes from the Adriatic to create constant ventilation and low humidity, a kind of ‘natural air conditioning,’ that enhances the flavor of the meat.
San Daniele's reputation for prosciutto even predates Roman times; the Celts were the first people to discover the region's natural proclivity for prosciutto production. Since those ancient times, San Daniele prosciutto has graced Roman tables, been used as tribute to the doges of Venice and coveted by French invaders in the 18th century.
Today, the San Daniele consortium oversees the production of over 3,000,00 prosciutto hams per year, about 14% of the total production of Italy. There are 27 producers who carry the San Daniele name, subject to the strict ‘Denominazioni di Origini Protteta’ (DOP) requirements of the consortium.
Every San Daniele prosciutto is subject to rigorous inspection for freshness, sufficient quantity of intramusuclar fat with a minimum of cooking fat, acceptable coloring (neither too pink nor too dark), and 100% natural production. The only ingredients in a San Daniele prosciutto are pork, sea salt and the cool breezes of the Friulian hills.
San Daniele Prosciutto are the only hams in Italy subject to rigorous inspection by an independent third party, ‘INEQ’ (Istituto Nord Est Qualità). San Daniele Prosciutto hams are inspected for texture and aroma with analytical profiles drawn up to check water, salt and protein ratios. The end result is an all-natural product rich in noble proteins, lower in fat than competitors' prosciutto, and the most consistently delicious, rigorously inspected prosciutto in the world.