Founder of family pizza empire leaves £7m fortune to his wife

THE founder of one of Scotland’s best known Italian restaurant chains has left a £7million fortune in his will.

Joe Conetta established Di Maggio’s restaurants, named in honour of the great Italian/American baseball player Joe DiMaggio, along with his nephew and business partner Mario Gizzi.

The company started with one restaurant in Glasgow’s West End in the early 1980s and now has more than 20 outlets, 1,000 staff and an annual turnover of around £35million.

Mr Conetta, a father of two, died last June aged 72 after suffering a heart attack at Frankfurt airport.

His recently published will reveals that he had built up a fortune valued at £7,168,383 at the time of his death.

He instructed that his estate should be left to his wife Lee.

His wealth included a property portfolio, stocks and shares and his stake in the restaurant chain.

Mr Conetta, pictured, was born in Glasgow in March, 1945. His father Tony was an Italian immigrant who ran a newsagents.

After leaving school at 14, Mr Conetta started working for his father, getting up at 4.30am before the shop opened to supply papers and cigarettes to workers headed for the shipyards.

He went on to open the first Di Maggio’s restaurant and within days, Glaswegians were queuing down the street to get a table for what he described as ‘casual dining’.

The Di Maggio’s chain is now run by Mr Conetta’s son Tony and Mario Gizzi, son of his original partner.

After retiring at the age of 55, Mr Conetta bought a farm in Lanarkshire, where he rode horses and raised chicken, goats and pigs.

Mr Conetta’s son Tony said last night: ‘My dad was an incredibly humble and hard-working man who took great pride in two things, his family and his business.’