Our Story

The story of Oropan is a story that begins with bread; a story that developed and grew thanks to 3 key elements: vision, passion, and people.

Oropan S.p.A. was born inside one of the oldest medieval ovens in Altamura where, at the age of 11, Vito Forte, now president of Oropan S.p.A., began working as a delivery boy. Soon, thanks to his courage, his passion, his resourcefulness and his entrepreneurial intuition, he took over that same oven and transformed his passion for bread-making into a leader in the bakery sector on the Italian agri-food scene, recognized throughout Italy and ambassador of Made in Italy all over the world.

Today, his three children, Lucia, Francesco and Daniele are at the helm of the company; having entered the company immediately, first occupying operational roles, they have progressively assumed managerial responsibilities. They have managed to pass on the founder’s passion, knowledge, and experience and, at the same time, to pursue objectives of business development and expansion, with a common and well-defined vision: “tradition declined for looking towards the future through the innovation of products, of processes and of business culture in order to make the company unique and attractive on the global market.

At the age of 11, a young man from Altamura, Vito Forte, began to work at a medieval oven. It was the year 1956 and Vito’s task was to collect the bread kneaded by the housewives and take it to be baked in the wood-burning oven. With his bicycle, the very young Vito went from house to house and, in the meantime, he learned the job of the baker. When he was 19, after 8 years of experience, Vito Forte took over that same oven where he had been a delivery boy. The boy was so talented at making bread that the demands were increasing daily. With the help of his wife Ninetta, Mr. Forte baked 50 kg of bread a day which he distributed, at first only to Altamura neighborhoods and then beyond the borders of the region. In 1974, production had increased so much that Vito Forte abandoned the ancient oven of medieval origins and found a new location. Today, located in that ancient oven there is the museum of bread that traces the story of Vito Forte and, therefore, that of Oropan.