Fiocchi

Fiocchi Munizioni was founded on 3 July 1876 in Lecco, Italy, by accountant Giulio Fiocchi. In 1876, Giulio Fiocchi took over the ammunition production part of a weapon and ammunition company already based in Lecco, which produced small caliber ammunition.[citation needed] A Fiocchi cal. 12 gauge. At that time a radical change was introduced in firearms: the newly developed breech-loader replaced the traditional muzzle loader. Fiocchi started manufacturing cases with primers suitable for reloading; in the early 1890s production was extended to complete cartridges loaded with bullets or shot. At the same time, Fiocchi gave up the production of black powder, as it was no longer profitable. Fiocchi has always designed and made its own production equipment.[citation needed] Such a strategy has always enabled Fiocchi to guide production with up-to-date technology matching with its manufacturing configuration.[citation needed] At the beginning of 20th century, Fiocchi introduced a product diversification and successfully entered a new field of activity -snaps- made using scraps left after cartridge production. This brought to the creation of Fiocchi Snaps in 1903. Snaps business assumed an important role to counterbalance the trend of the ammunition market and at the end of 80's was so attractive that, upon Fiocchi's decision to focus on ammunition as its core business, the snaps factory was taken over by the European leader in this field. During its long life, Fiocchi has manufactured all kinds of ammunition from pinfire, shotshells, and cartridges to all kinds of cartridges and cases, both rimfire and centrefire.