Confetti Pelino

According to a deed signed by the Notary Ventresca, the Pelino company was founded in May 1783 in Introdacqua, a village near Sulmona, by Francesco Pelino’s son Berardino, who was born in 1750. The Pelino company was in turn inherited by Berardino’s son Panfilo, who was born in 1794, and it was he who expanded the firm’s thriving activities beyond the trade of almonds and into the production of ‘confetti’ and then also into liqueurs.

Panfilo’s son Francesco Paolo (born in 1833) is to be remembered for the expansion of the economic activities during the difficult period at the end of the process of the Unification of Italy. He was also responsible for initiating the first exports out of Italy.

Francesco Paolo’s son Alfonso (born in 1858) first moved the factory into the centre of Sulmona and then in 1890 built the new factory on the city’s outskirts. The building, that is still in use today has been declared a Monument of National Interest by the Ministry of Culture in 1922.
Mario Pelino (born in 1892) continued the work of his father Alfonso and in the early 1900’s he added the production of Citrate to the company’s activities, thus increasing both its national and international reputation.

In July 1973, control of the company passed jointly to Mario’s sons Alfonso and Olindo and thence in 2002 to Alfonso and Olindo’s sons, representing the 7th generation of Pelinos. During this latest period of the company’s growth, there has been investment in new technologies, taking into great consideration the environmental aspects of production towards an eco-factory vision.

Note that many of the deeds and documents relating to the founding of the Pelino company and its many phases of expansion and development are kept in the Municipal Archives of Sulmona and at the Chamber of Commerce in L’Aquila.