James Leprino Net Worth & Biography

Currently based in Colorado in the United States, James Leprino is an American businessman and entrepreneur who owns a fortune of over 3 billion dollars. James makes his money through his role as the owner, chairman of the board, and president of Leprino Foods, a successful privately held company that specializes in making mozzarella cheese. As of this writing, Leprino Foods is regarded as the number one producer of mozzarella cheese on the planet. The company was founded by James’, father Mike Sr., who many years ago, started with producing cheese and ricotta to local stores in the ’50s. Today, Leprino Foods supplies cheese to several renowned brands in the United Kingdom, including Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, Hot Pockets, and Domino’s. Aside from cheese, the Laprino Foods company also produces whey protein, sweet whey powder, and lactose. In 2017, Forbes magazine listed James Leprino as the 265th richest person in the United States.

Early Life: Childhood, Education

Billionaire businessman and Leprino Foods owner and chairman, James Leprino, was born in the year 1937 in the United States, as the youngest of the five children of Mike Leprino Sr. and his wife, Ann.

James’ father emigrated from Italy in 1914 when he was just 16 years old and settled in Denver, Colorado. He found employment as a farm assistant and maintained his responsibilities for a few years before opening a grocery store in Denver’s Little Italy in the year 1950.

Professional Life: Business Career

After graduating from high school in the year 1956, James Leprino joined his father as a full-time worker but due to pressure from several large grocery chains in the country, his father’s store closed in 1958.

James and his father moved on and started Leprino Foods with the sum of $615, focusing on making cheese for pizza. The sales boomed as they shifted their focus to manufacturing cheese for pizza entirely which had recently taken off as the most popular food choice in the United States. It was a perfect time for the Leprino family, as they began recording unimagined profits instantly. The same year that James started the cheese business, a new Pizza Hut was opened in Wichita, Kansas. The following year, the first Little Caesars shops opened in a suburb of Detroit. In 1960, Dominos began delivering pizzas in Michigan. It took just two years in business for Leprino Foods to be delivering 200 pounds of mozzarella to local Denver restaurants every week. James hit a stroke of genius in 1968. Pizza Hut was in search of a cheese supplier that was capable of helping the company minimize its costs while also making its output standardized. James heard that shredding five-pound blocks consumed too much time and didn’t produce consistent slices of cheese. So his company started selling frozen, pre-sliced cheese blocks. This was the first time pizza producers could layer slices of cheese onto each pizza easily and efficiently. The result of this remarkable idea was instant prosperity for Leprino Foods and a boost in the fortune of the company’s administrators, including, of course, James Leprino.

As of this writing, James’ company, Leprino Foods is the world’s largest mozzarella maker. It supplies cheese to multiple world-known companies including Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John’s, and many other packaged food companies. The company also sells sweet whey powder for products like baby formula and yogurt. Leprino Foods is currently known to be one of the 200 largest private companies in America, thanks to the hard work and leadership abilities of James Leprino, whose efforts have greatly helped in moving the company forward.

In Politics

For twenty-seven years starting from 1990 until 2017, Leprino Foods contributed more than $1.5 million to political lobbying, with roughly 80 percent of the political contributions going to Republicans.

Personal Life: Family, Private Interests, Properties

James Leprino is a married man. He is also a devoted member of the Roman Catholic Church and takes his religious faith seriously.

His primary residence is in Indian Hills, Colorado. However, this billionaire is said to maintain several residences around the world. Additionally, he owns a number of significant planes, including a Bombardier jet, a Gulfstream G450, and a small commuter plane.

James Leprino Net Worth: Salary, Assets, Income Sources

CEO James Leprino’s net worth is more than 3 billion dollars as of this writing. His one and only known source of wealth is the Leprino Foods company which he owns and leads as its president, chairman, and chief executive officer. This Colorado-based businessman is said to control 80 percent of the American pizza cheese market through his Leprino Foods, which is the largest mozzarella producer in the world. The company sells more than a billion pounds of cheese every year.