Gilberto Benetton

Benetton left school at 14, after his father died, and worked at local firms until starting United Colours of Benetton with his siblings in 1965.[3] The company initially made clothing on a homemade production line in Ponzano Veneto near Venice.[4] The company became well known for its brightly colored clothing.[5] By the 1980s the company was distributing in 100 countries, and the Benetton family had become billionaires.[3]

After his family company's success in the 1980s, Benetton diversified into infrastructure, including roads, telecom, catering, and agriculture.[6][3] He acquired Autogrill, a motorway food service company.[3] Then Atlantia, the owner of Autostrade with contracts in road and airport construction.[3] He also acquired stakes in Telecom Italia, Mediobanca, Pirelli, and RCS Mediagroup.[3] In 2018 he organized the acquisition of Abertis, a motorway group from Spanish building firm ACS.[7]

The Benetton Group was controversial for their ads, which often went against social norms of the time.[4][8] The ads challenged social taboos such as sexuality, war, racism, and AIDS.[9] In 2011 the company pulled an ad featuring a photoshopped image of the Pope kissing a prominent Islamic cleric after the Vatican complained.[10][11] The company became one of the world's largest retail groups, with 5000 stores in 120 companies.[9] However, since 2000 it has seen dwindling sales.[6]

Originally, each of the four Benetton siblings had an equal quarter share of Edizione.[12] Benetton was the former chairman of Edizione, the family's holding company which controls Atlantia.[8] He was vice-president of Edizione when he died.[4] He was the former chairman of one of their key investments, Autogrill highway and airport restaurants,[13] and at his death he was vice-president.[4]

He was the only family member on the Atlantia board, and faced a crisis in August 2018 when the Genoa bridge collapse killed 43 people, a unit of Atlantia was the bridge operator.[14] There were claims the weakness in the bridge was known in advance, and that the disaster was avoidable.[15] The holding company Edizione lost 2 billion Euros in value after the incident.[16][12]

In the years leading up to his death, Benetton had brought non-family member Marco Patuano in to run the Edizione company he had previously been head of, and indicated it should operate like a sovereign wealth fund.[17] It is expected that he will be succeeded in his board role by Gilberto's daughter Sabrina.[12][16]

Benetton was married to Lalla, they had two daughters, Barbara and Sabrina, and lived in Treviso, Italy.[1][13]

He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2012.[18] This was due to his contribution to the sport of Italian basketball, while he was the owner of the Italian professional basketball club Treviso Basket.[18] He started sponsoring the club in 1978,[19] bought the club in 1980,[18] and had financed the club from his business career.[3] He also sponsored rugby and volleyball clubs in Treviso.[19] The Benetton's sold out of the basketball and volleyball clubs in 2012.[19] The Benetton family is now only focused on the rugby club.[12]

Italian newspapers had reported that Benetton's health started to decline after the Genoa bridge disaster and the death of his brother Carlo in July.[3] He died aged 77, on 22 October 2018, at his home in Treviso, Italy.[13][20] A statement from the Benetton Group said "His wife Lalla, daughters Barbara and Sabrina and son-in-law Ermanno were with him in his final moments".[6]