One of Italy’s top salami moguls has died after a helicopter crashed into his family’s castle grounds, killing three.
Cured meats heir Lorenzo Rovagnati, 41, visited the medieval estate, in Castelguelfo di Noceto, by helicopter from Milan nearly every Wednesday.
But this time, his Agusta Westland AW109 crashed shortly before 7pm as a dense fog sat hung over Parma, a province that lends its name to Parma ham. Both pilots also died in the crash.
Rovagnati had two children with Federica Sironi, who is pregnant with a third.
‘I can’t believe it’, said Luciano Casiraghi, the mayor of Biassono, where Mr Rovagnati lived on the outskirts of Milan.
‘I learned with shock and deep sadness the news of the untimely demise of our fellow citizen Lorenzo Rovagnati due to a tragic accident in Castelguelfo.
‘Lorenzo was a good, honest and hardworking young man, loved and valued by all who knew him in the company and beyond.
A helicopter ferried Lorenzo between Milan and his family’s castle every Wednesday
Lorenzo Rovagnati led the company’s international expansion
His loss is hard for all of us to accept; a young man who still had a great future ahead of him, as a father and as an entrepreneur, but unfortunately life has reserved something terrible for our fellow citizen Lorenzo.’
Until his death yesterday, Mr Rovagnati was the CEO of the family business, one of the country’s major salami and prosciutto manufacturers.
Cheese and butter were its business when it was founded by Angelo Ferruccio Rovagnati and his son, Paolo, after World War II.
With a shift to processed meats in the 1960s, it became best known as the maker of the Gran Biscotto cooked prosciutto.
Under the late Lorenzo Rovagnati’s leadership, the company opened its first overseas production plant in Vineland, New Jersey, in the USA.
Known as the ‘king of hams’, the Rovagnati company turns over revenues of £250million a year, and employs more than 1,000 people.
In late 2023, the family launched a boutique Pineider store off Saville Row, in London, after their 2017 purchase of the company, which they turned into a luxury brand selling handcrafted leather bags, pens and stationary.
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