Manufacturing and Energy | Food & Beverage
President and founder
BelGioioso Cheese | Green Bay
Fourth-generation cheesemaker Errico Auricchio founded BelGioioso Cheese Inc. in Brown County in 1979 after having moved from Italy to Wisconsin. Today, the Green Bay-based company produces 27 cheese varieties, sourcing its milk from more than 200 Wisconsin dairy farms and distributing its product nationwide and internationally. When he first founded BelGioioso, Auricchio brought with him two artisan cheesemakers from Italy; as of last year, the company has seven Certified Master Cheesemakers on staff. The company has over 700 employees working across its 10 plants in Wisconsin and two plants in the state of New York.
BelGioioso is a major player in the mozzarella cheese market alongside the likes of the Kraft Heinz Co., Grande Cheese Co., Organic Valley, Saputo Cheese and Sargento. Last year, BelGioioso purchased Polly-O – a brand known for its ricotta, mozzarella and string cheese items – from Kraft Heinz. BelGioiso has racked up many awards for its cheeses over the years and most recently took home four medals at the 2022 World Championship Cheese Contest. Auricchio is chairman of the Consortium for Common Food Names, an international organization, and is a founding member of the Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Institute.