Massimo Zanetti (born 12 February 1948 in
Treviso
Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and '' comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Ven ...
) is an Italian entrepreneur and former politician, owner of
Segafredo, a global coffee company. Since 2016 Zanetti is also the owner of the Italian basketball team
Virtus Bologna
Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, known for sponsorship reasons as Virtus Segafredo Bologna, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna.
The club was founded in 1929, which makes it the oldest club in Italy and one ...
, one of the most successful teams in Europe, of which he formally became president in October 2021. He is often called by media the "King of Coffee".
Biography
Massimo Zanetti was born in
Treviso
Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and '' comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Ven ...
in 1948. During 1970s he moved to
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
where he acquired the local company Segafredo, an historic coffee producer with a fairly well known brand. Zanetti gave impulse and new vitality to the company, to which he added its own brand "Segafredo Zanetti", opening it to international markets, diversifying it with the creation of a worldwide network, making it in a few years one of the top coffee producers in the world. The
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
,
Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group
Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group is an Italian coffee company that owns brands such as ''Segafredo'' and ''MJB''. With turnover of around US$1.2 billion per year, it claims to be the biggest private company in the coffee industry.
The group
Today, ...
(MZB), coordinates the group's activities and invests about 1,200 million
dollars
Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, U ...
. The Segafredo headquarter is based in
Pianoro
Pianoro ( Bolognese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Bologna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, in the hills of the Tusco-Emilian Apennines, above sea level.
Highway SS 65 connects the town to Bologna and Florence across th ...
, in the Bologna hinterland.
In the
1994 general election he was elected
Senator for
Forza Italia, the liberal conservative party founded by the media magnate
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
. The legislature ended in 1996, after the fall of Berlusconi's government in 1995 and the short-lived technocratic cabinet of
Lamberto Dini
Lamberto Dini CGMG (born 1 March 1931) is an Italian politician and economist. He was the Director General of Bank of Italy from 1979 to 1994, Minister of Treasury from 1994 to 1996, the 51st Prime Minister of Italy from 1995 to 1996, and Forei ...
. Zanetti decided not to run for a second term in the
1996 general election.
In the
2013 local elections, Zanetti ran for mayor of Treviso, supported by
Civic Choice, a liberal and centrist party of former Prime Minister
Mario Monti, getting 10.57% and arriving third not accessing the ballot. After a first attempt to agree with the center-right candidate
Giancarlo Gentilini, he decided not to give voting instructions to his voters.
Sports activities
The Segafredo brand appeared as the main
sponsor on the jerseys of
Bologna F.C. between 1986 and 1989, on those of
Gorizia Basketball between 1984 and 1988 and on those of
A.C.D. Treviso
Treviso FBC 1993 is an Italian football club based in Treviso. The club was formed in 1909 and refounded in 1993, in 2009, in 2013 and in 2019. The club currently plays in Eccellenza.
History
F.B.C. Treviso
The club was founded in 1909 as ...
in different years between 1986 and 2006.
On 23 December 2010, after a long and troubled negotiation lasting about a month, the Bologna 2010 entrepreneurial group, led by
Giovanni Consorte
Giovanni Consorte (born 16 April 1948) is an Italian manager.
Career
Born in Chieti, Consorte graduated in chemical engineering at the University of Bologna in 1972 and headed Montedison from 1973 to 1975, then Lega delle Cooperative from 19 ...
, bought 100% of Bologna football team from Sergio Porcedda and Francesca Menarini. At the same time, Zanetti assumed the position of president. The office of honorary president, not operative, was held by the popular singer
Gianni Morandi
Gianni Morandi (; born 11 December 1944) is an Italian pop singer, actor and entertainer.
Early life
Gian Luigi Morandi was born in a little village called Monghidoro on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. His father Renato was active within the ...
.
On 21 January 2011, Zanetti unexpectedly resigned as chairman of Bologna and as a director of the holding company due to contrasts with the other
shareholder
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...
s. After his resignation Zanetti still remained the relative majority shareholder of the club. In March 2011, the entrepreneur and former president Alfredo Cazzola tried to take over the shares of Zanetti, but the negotiations were not successful, so Zanetti remained shareholder, although no longer intending to participate in club's life.
However, on 25 September 2014 he announced its willingness to become the majority shareholder again. The negotiations that would have provided for the acquisition of 51% of the club's shares and the return of Zanetti as president of the club failed in October 2014, when the club was bought by the Canadian entrepreneur
Joey Saputo.
In 2016, Segafredo entered in
Trek–Segafredo, a professional road bicycle racing team, which signed, among others
Alberto Contador
Alberto Contador Velasco (; born 6 December 1982) is a Spanish former professional cyclist. He is one of the most successful riders of his era, winning the Tour de France twice ( 2007, 2009), the Giro d'Italia twice (2008, 2015), and the V ...
,
John Degenkolb
John Degenkolb (born 7 January 1989) is a German professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . His biggest wins to date are the 2015 Milan–San Remo and the 2015 Paris–Roubaix, two of cycling's five monuments. He is ...
,
Ivan Basso
Ivan Basso (born 26 November 1977) is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 1999 and 2015 for seven different teams. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, was considered among the best mountain riders in ...
and
Ryder Hesjedal
Eric Ryder Hesjedal (; born December 9, 1980) is a Canadian retired professional racing cyclist who competed in both mountain biking and road racing between 1998 and 2016. Hesjedal won a silver medal at the 1998 Junior, 2001 Under-23, and Elite ...
.
Virtus Bologna
In 2016, Segafredo Zanetti became the main sponsor of
Virtus Bologna
Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, known for sponsorship reasons as Virtus Segafredo Bologna, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna.
The club was founded in 1929, which makes it the oldest club in Italy and one ...
, the main basketball team in the town and one of the most successful one in Italy and Europe. On 23 March 2017 he participated in the
capital increase of the club, with a 47% of shares, becoming ''de facto'' the club's owner. Under Zanetti's ownership, on 5 May 2019, Virtus won its fifth European title, the
Basketball Champions League
The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Intercont ...
in Antwerp, defeating
Iberostar Tenerife
Club Cantera Base 1939 Canarias S.A.D., also known as Lenovo Tenerife for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball team that is based in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Domestically, the team plays in the top level league i ...
73–61. The BCL was team's first European title after ten years. While in June 2021, after having knocked out 3–0 both
Basket Treviso
Pallacanestro Treviso, named Benetton Basket due to a long running sponsorship by the Benetton Group and widely referred to as Benetton Treviso, is an Italian youth basketball club based in Treviso, Veneto.
The club was previously a successful pr ...
in the quarterfinals and
New Basket Brindisi
New Basket Brindisi, for sponsorship reasons named Happy Casa Brindisi or shortly Brindisi, is a professional Italian basketball based in Brindisi, Apulia. It plays in the first division LBA in the 2022–23 season.
Founded in 2004, the well ...
in the semifinals, Virtus
defeated 4–0 its historic rival
Olimpia Milano
Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano, commonly known as Olimpia Milano or as EA7 Emporio Armani Milan after its title sponsor, is an LBA Italian professional basketball team, based in Milan, Italy. Its colors are white and red, and the team is sometimes ...
in the national finals, winning its 16th national title and the first one after twenty years.
On 28 October 2021, Zanetti was elected president of Virtus, succeeding Giuseppe Sermasi at the head of the club, and became the only shareholder after a €2 million capital increase. After having ousted
Lietkabelis,
Ulm
Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...
and
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
in the first three rounds of the
playoffs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
, on 11 May 2022, Virtus defeated
Frutti Extra Bursaspor by 80–67 at the Segafredo Arena, winning its first
EuroCup and qualifying for the
EuroLeague after 14 years.
Electoral history
First-past-the-post elections
Municipal elections
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zanetti, Massimo
1948 births
Living people
People from Treviso
Forza Italia politicians
Civic Choice politicians
Businesspeople in coffee