COMPANY HISTORY
PIETTA BROTHERS
A MAN WITH A DREAM AND A FAMILY TO FULFILL IT
“I didn’t want an ordinary job, I didn’t want to rest in the security of the end-of-month salary, I was looking for an incentive to do something important, both for myself and for the family I would build in the future.”
Pietta Senior
Son of a Tempini factory worker, the seventh of nine siblings, Giuseppe Pietta still thanks his father for what he was able to give him: “He could not afford to let me study, but he gave me much more. He passed on to me solid values of honesty, strong will and respect for others, which were the model for his life and for our family. I grew up carrying with me a sense of commitment and ambition.”
Since elementary school, he had been helping his brother Mario, who was a worker in a manufacturing industry making shotguns. “There were many more hunters then than there are today, and that factory had a lot of work, so my brother, to supplement his income, took home some work, and I, helping him, soon learned about rifles,” Pietta says.
At the age of 14, he was employed in a small gun factory in Collebeato and soon learned the entire cycle of gun making. Pietta explains, “I took advantage of the opportunity to learn every step in the firearms manufacturing process. In the meantime, I was taking evening classes studying technology and mechanics. While I was working, I could afford to buy books without burdening my family.”
This was the beginning of a career that gave him a way to gather experience and achievements, even in his personal life.
The desire to do more to achieve more began for Giuseppe Pietta at the age of 18, when he turned down help offered by the parish priest of Gussago, who was ready to help him find work at O.M. Brescia. This success pushed the company to grow further, and soon the brothers felt the need for even more space, expanding into their father’s small vineyard.
Married and intent on building a solid future for his family, Giuseppe Pietta continued to learn a trade that proved over the years to be unique and exciting.
On March 22nd, 1963 the company Pietta Giuseppe was born – manufacturing shotgun parts.
“I always made all the big decisions on my own,” says Giuseppe Pietta, “I would make my decision and then always consult my wife; I was the more decisive one, while she was more reflective. Sometimes we argued, but in the end she always accepted and agreed with my decisions-she knew that everything I was doing was only for our good and for the good of our children.”
“I wanted to give my family the opportunities I didn’t have,” Pietta continued, “that’s why I was such a tireless worker. Never counting the time that passed, not being with my family as much as I would have liked and giving them less time than I would have liked, with the goal of being able to give them more. I know they understood all that.”
Although times were tough, his passion and dedication knew no moments of discouragement. Indeed, in 1965 the love for the craft became contamination when with his brother, a gunsmith himself, he founded Fratelli Pietta. They decided to breathe new life into the factory by purchasing shotgun components for assembly. The first copy produced was dated April 1966 and was sold the following month for 30,000 liras. It was “…a 12-gauge over-and-under shotgun, the first to bear our trademark. In the first year of production we made 156 of them. During the following year we produced more than 1,000.”
The new company in the Brescia area occupied a seventy-square-meter space on Via Briglia and represented the beginning of Giuseppe Pietta’s entrepreneurial adventure in the firearm industry.
In the following years, the company continued to grow and expand its production. In 1974, Pietta decided to begin production of drum revolvers, specializing in the reproduction of historical models. This choice proved to be a success and led to the acquisition of a great reputation in the industry.
“At the same time we began to cooperate with a major French company that exported shotguns for the French market. Our factory sent them their first rifle in 1967. Since then, our cooperation has intensified greatly and our brand name began to circulate. Later, ‘Monsieur Galan’ came to visit our factory because of a common connection; he was a French entrepreneur who imported shotguns for his business and was looking for a factory that could produce historical models of American guns. His first purchase order included 10,000 rifles, the Model 1851 Navy.” says Pietta.
That order completely changed the direction of the factory, geared more toward production rather than rifle assembly. “This major decision involved an equally major investment. It was a brave choice,” he says, “Just think what it meant for us to receive the first purchase order from an American customer asking us to send him seven thousand pieces, when our monthly production was four hundred replicas…. We immediately wondered if the order was real. But it was, and it actually called for the production of not only the 1951 Navy model, but also the Colt Army, the Remington, the 1936 Paterson and the Le Mat model.”
The market expanded and the company grew larger, requiring fifteen in-house workers. Then, in 1978, due to increased demand, the company was faced with a drastic decision. There was a need for internal structural reorganization, which required a substantial capital investment.
The two business brothers decided to follow different paths, and the factory, which kept the same name, remained under the management of Giuseppe Pietta and his wife Elisabetta. In 1985 they were honored by a major Houston chamber of commerce, another sign of approval for their excellence.
Today FAP Arms Factory F.lli Pietta is the radiant collectible arms factory known all over the world. Managed by his sons and still true to the values of their father Giuseppe, it continues to carry high an Italian brand, synonymous with quality and passion.