Our History

Everything started with the dried roasted olives

My business started in the sixties, aging and drying up fresh olives according to my hometown local tradition. From that moment on Castel Madama, the town where I grew up, became renowned notably on the Roman market, for the awesome DRIED ROASTED OLIVES.

First pouch produced without my logo

While heading to Rome, a few days before Christmas 1966, to deliver bins of DRIED ROASTED OLIVES, I had an idea that changed completely my business. At that time almost all my clients where complaining for the time spent in order to prepare the 400/500 grams paper cornets for their customers. I therefore realized that the winning move was to provide such format, ready to be sold assuring at the same time the freshness and the quality. Once home I got in touch with a friend typographer to define the draft. A couple of weeks later I was distributing the first pouches, packed, weight and manually sealed. I had found the added value of my products and the name of my company was printed on the pack. I was very satisfied, and also my customers.

The first logo, or brand as it used to be called in the early days

In the early years of the company, there was already a great contention on the market. I definitely needed an image to distinguish my products and at the same time make them recognizable for my customers. The first Ficacci logo, created after a series of sketches and drafts, carried significant elements in it, obviously the olives and of course, as it was customary in those years, my initials ..RF.

First vacuum packed olives in brine

Following the concept of the first logo and the introduction of the vacuum packing process, I decided to create a range of new products. The aim was to put a spotlight on the olives, foreseeing market trends and enhancing the product thanks to the introduction of a transparent package. The vacuum process allowed us also to create longer shelf life products. Relevant innovations for when olives were simply packed in bags and sealed with a knot or a plain seal.

My wedding

And one fine day the big step, I marry the woman without whom my professional and personal projects would have been impossible to carry out. Before the Lord we have become a family and in the company we have always been a close-knit couple with objectives and goals to be achieved together. It was certainly my winning choice, even for my professional life!

Umberto, the eldest son

About a year after my wedding, one of the best days of my life ... My first son Umberto is born, we decided to call him after my father. I immediately realized that from that moment my life would change, between diapers and sleepless nights my new adventure as a parent began.

Guido... the right arm

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress… working together is a success” this sentence by Henry Ford best represents what happened in 1975. In the life of an entrepreneur, knowing how to identify collaborators is one of the most difficult choices. At that time I had the intuition and the luck of recognizing in one of the many guys who worked with me on an occasional basis, the person who could become my right arm. It was precisely in this period that the collaboration with Guido began, which still continues to prove to be a winning choice , in addition to the professional relationship, ours soon became a sincere friendship...