Giovanni Rana (born October 15, 1937, in Cologna Veneta, Italy) is a pasta maker and founder of the Giovanni Rana brand of Italian food products including refrigerated pasta, sauces, and ready-made dishes. The brand started in 1962 with homemade tortellini and has since expanded, distributing products in 38 different countries.[1]
History
Giovanni Rana was born in 1937. Giovanni Rana joined his brothers at the bakery in San Giovanni Lupatoto in 1950 and began making tortellini, personally preparing the pasta and the filling. He began producing pasta and made the deliveries door-to-door with his red motorbike.
In 1962 Pastificio Rana officially opened its doors. At the beginning the production, the pasta was strictly handmade. Giovanni Rana himself oversaw distribution and delivered the tortellini from house to house.
With the assistance of local engineers and mechanics, Giovanni Rana designed and developed new machines to meet increasing demand for pasta. The machines increased production from about 33 pounds of tortellini an hour to about 44,000 pounds an hour. In 1971, the factory moved to its current location, San Giovanni Lupatoto. Giovanni Rana's son Gian Luca Rana (today’s CEO of Giovanni Rana company) joined the company and expanded the brand to other European countries and the US. The first factory in Chicago opened in 2012. In October 2012 the Giovanni Rana pasta company opened its first restaurant in the United States at the Chelsea Market complex in the Chelsea neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan.[2] The same year the firm opened a restaurant at Regent's Place in London, England, which is its first eatery in the United Kingdom.[3]