Our History

As the first decade of the 2000s came to a close, Pietro Fiorentini had already launched several projects related to the development of renewable energies, such as biomethane, hydrogen and power to gas, which are crucial solutions in the energy transition process. Starting from September 2020, the Company launched a comprehensive sustainability model assessment based on ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) criteria to meet our clients’ expectations on environmental, social and management responsibilities issues.

In 2011, Pietro Fiorentini finalised a deal to hold a strategic 40% share of the capital (which would increase to 50% in 2019) of Terranova, a company that develops software for the utilities sector. The goal was to provide our clients with a complete package for the management of Smart Grids, intelligent distribution systems capable of providing timely data regarding consumption and payment management of the various users, as well as supporting critical decisions to manage the supply chain.

With our acquisition of Digit Srl, a company that produces remote management and remote control systems, Pietro Fiorentini bet on the digitalisation of gas metering systems, in view of a possible technology change to millions of meters. This decision would prove to be an insightful one: today Pietro Fiorentini produces over 6 million smart meters for the European market alone.

At the beginning of the new millennium and with the third generation of this entrepreneurial family taking to the helm, led by Mario, Cristiano and Paolo Nardi, the organisational and manufacturing transformation of the Company began with the gradual implementation of innovative Lean Manufacturing models, which were almost completely unheard of in Italy at the time. The goal was to become increasingly “streamlined”, eliminating waste, freeing up time and personnel and focusing our efforts on the creation of value, as part of a process of continuous improvement. This is a process that still continues today and that has led Pietro Fiorentini to become a point of reference internationally when it comes to implementing this methodology.

A joint venture was established with Shanghai Aerospace, a Chinese colossus that was entering the energy sector at that time. As a consequence of this JV, Shanghai Fiorentini was founded in 1996, an independent company of which Pietro Fiorentini held 40% (now 45%), dealing with the production of regulators and systems for the markets of China and the Far East. During these years, the Group also established international subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and South America.

After the passing of our founder Pietro Fiorentini, his son-in-law Tito Nardi took to the helm of the Company and implemented a comprehensive reorganisation of manufacturing. It was a historic moment in Italian energy policy, in which Pietro Fiorentini was one of the main partners of Snam in the process of creating the natural gas network in Northern Italy, a feat that was completed thanks to new import agreements stipulated with Libya, the USSR and Holland.

After moving to Vicenza in 1950, the Company took its first big leap in business by signing a licensing contract for foreign production with one of the world’s leading oil services companies, the “Compagnie des Compteurs”. For 15 years, valves and pressure regulators were produced in France under the Fiorentini brand, and are still commonly called “Fiò” today. In the years that followed, our portfolio of products and services expanded to include complete solutions and systems for gas reduction and metering.

On the first of January 1940, the “Pietro Fiorentini Impianti Metano, Fabbrica Italiana Apparecchi Carburatori per Gas Metano” was founded in Bologna. In 1941, the Company began manufacturing systems for using methane instead of normal fuel in combustion engines and the year after it began to sell pressure regulators for gas cylinders. This represents the beginning of over 80 years full of success and increasingly ambitious milestones.