Amedeo Obici

Amedeo Obici (1877–1947) was an Italian-American businessman who founded the Planters Peanut Company in 1906 and owned four factories by 1930. Obicione immigrated to the United States from Oderzo, Italy in 1889. He began his career in business by selling five-cent bags of peanuts on the street in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In 1897 he took on another Italian immigrant, his brother-in-law Mario Peruzzi, as a partner.

He invented a new method of skinning and blanching peanuts so the roasted goobers came out clean. In 1913, he built a new processing plant in the heart of peanut farming territory in Suffolk, Virginia. His genius in marketing, finding new products to add to Planter's stock, and his generosity to his adopted community and his workers left an indelible imprint. Among his donations are the Obici Memorial Hospital. He died in 1947.

References

• Hobbs, Kermit; & Paquette, William A. Suffolk: A Pictorial History. Norfolk/Virginia Beach: The Donning Company. ISBN 0-89865-611-7.it:Amedeo Obici