Financial versus sustainability reporting in the brewery industry.The case of Birrificio Angelo Poretti – Carlsberg Italia

Purpose - This research can be placed in the following topic showed in the call for papers: “Accounting, Business and Financial History of Food producers”, focused on the production of the beer in Italy over the period 1877-1980. The historical study will be carried out in the genetic and evolutionary analysis of the company Birrificio Angelo Poretti – Carlsberg Italia. The company, founded in 1877 and formalized three years later with the creation of Angelo Poretti e C., was born from the Angelo Poretti’s idea which was to introduce a new kind of beer, the Bohemian Pilsner, to Italy. Compared to those which had been sold in Italy up until that time ("Vienna" and "Chiavenna"), Bohemian Pilsner was lighter and more delicate and was produced using first class ingredients. His lengthy experience in central Europe had convinced him of the feasibility of his initiative. The popularity of the brewery Angelo Poretti is also due to the fact that the first factory was located near the caves of Valganna, where there was a spring known as the "fontana degli ammalati" (fountain of the ill), which was famous for its "miraculous" effects locally, and even as far off as Milan. Angelo Poretti purchased both properties, which provided for an immediate advertising effect: the water from the "fontana degli ammalati" became the foundation of his beer. The company became dramatically popular only a few years later, in 1881, with the World's Fair held in Milan (http://www.museoweb.it/imprese/carlsberg-italia/). This research aims to analyze the evolutionary process of corporate reporting the company's inception until the second half of the '90s through the analysis of accounting records and not, preserved in the company’s archive in the province of Varese. We will adopt a longitudinal thematic content analysis with the aim of understanding how the content of the documents changes to the different institutional settings experienced by the company (Adams, McNicholas, 2007; Moreno, Càmara, 2014). The primary topic will be focused on the development of the corporate reporting in relation to a company's growing commitment to sustainability and its corporate business strategy and policies.