How old is beretta company

Pietro Beretta and his sons Carlo and Pier Giuseppe, in a photo from Tactical Shooting Discover More. Practical Shooting Discover More. Clay Shooting Discover More. Hunting Discover More. Discover More. Would you like to log into Beretta using your logged in facebook information?

Home Since Today. Today's Operations In the last decades, with Ugo Gussalli Beretta at the guidance of the company, the firm has opened a headquarter in the United States, the main gun market, awarded the largest military contract in modern history by letting the 92FS pistol to become the official sidearm of the US Armed Forces and starting a product diversification that brought the company to act on the market as the main player together with a clothing line, accessories and leisure.

Success Stories The greatest success story regarding pistols is the fact that the American Armed Forces and State Police Forces started using the Beretta 92 series in What We're Known For Industriousness, inventiveness, traditional methods, attention to the needs of its customers and its craftsmen, as well as ongoing research, technological improvement and state-of-the-art manufacturing methods are the foundation on which Beretta has built its image.

Tactical Shooting Discover More. Practical Shooting Discover More. These efforts created successful ventures in the military, law enforcement and private sectors. Today, under the leadership of Ugo Gussalli Beretta and his sons Pietro and Franco, Beretta embarks on the 3rd Millennium with the benefit of centuries of experience.

That experience, combined with investments in technology, organization and growing product lines, has prepared Beretta for the demands of the global market of the 21st century.

Quality Without Compromise. Iron ore in the hills of northern Italy made the area an iron-working center from the Middle Ages. Bartolomeo Beretta was born in The earliest documentary evidence of his forge is a contract from the Doges of Venice, dated October 3, , for 'arquebus' barrels. The harquebus was a type of musket so heavy it had to be propped up with supports.

Beretta's first product was quite a contrast to the handguns for which it later became known. The operation may well pre-date the year from which the company counts its anniversaries. In his extensive history, The World of Beretta, R.

Wilson cites an account of a flood in the Mella Valley, which indicated the forge 'bore the date AD carved on its lintel. Bartolomeo had a son, Jacomo, and a grandson, Giovannino, who became a master gun barrel maker. Another grandson, Lodovico, established a gun lock fabrication trade.

At the middle of the 16th century, Val Trompia had 50 mines, eight smelteries, and 40 smithies. It produced 25, guns a year, mostly for export, as well as various other types of iron and steel goods.

During the war between Venice and Turkey in , production more than tripled to weapons per day. Giovanni Antonio Beretta designed his own breech-loading cannons in , but it is unclear whether they were ever built. In the late s, the Beretta clan was involved in a deadly feud with the Chinellis that saw one of their members, Francesco Beretta, sentenced to four years of military service. In , the Berettas were the second largest barrel producer among 33 in Gardone, making 2, barrels, mostly for long arms.

The Venetian senate sporadically banned the export of gun barrels throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. When it was allowed, high duties slowed sales.

The artisans involved in the highly specialized business of making gun barrels were vulnerable to these downturns. During these times, the Republic of Venice went to great lengths to prevent the export of technology.

The guild system began to collapse in the 18th century under pressure from merchants. Interestingly, one of Francesco Beretta's sons, Giovanni, was a merchant. Gardonese muskets began to wane in popularity in the s, putting more pressure on the guilds to accept the merchants' economic terms.