Our Story

The beginning

Our story begins at the end of World War II

During the war Leo Filoni period, the company’s founder, is a worker at the Società Metallurgica Italiana, a metalworking plant in Campo Tizzoro, in the province of Pistoia.

Here, he works in the model and carpentry department, where he begins his professional training and develops a passion for woodworking and handwork. Determined to broaden his horizons, after a few years, Leo moves to France, where he continues working as a carpenter and become specialized in the construction of furniture.

When he comes back to Italy, in 1950, Leo decides to put his skills to good use and set up his own business: he starts building wooden casings and furniture.

At this point Leo is a good carpenter and an expert model maker. The immediate success of his business convinces him to relocate to a bigger place.

In the meantime, his brother Omero, a skilled metalworker who has just returned from a period of emigration to Switzerland, joins the company.

The growth

The company broadens its sectors of activity. In Italy it’s the period of the economic boom and the demand of goods increases.

In addition to the casings and furniture, the brothers begin the production of foundry moulds and began to work with important customers, big companies that acknowledged Leo and Omero technical skills and a good dose of ingenuity and creativity in solving work problems.

The numerous requests make it necessary to start hiring new people: not only young apprentices who want to learn the craft along but also more experienced workers.

In 1966 Leo’s son, Franco, began collaborating to the family business, after a period spent as a working tool salesman,. Omero, decides to start his own business in the metalworking sector.

A new headquarter

Over the years, the company demonstrates an ability to respond to customer requests and expands its portfolio.

The continuous growth requires spaces suitable for carrying out the commissioned works. In 1978 we moved to a new shed, built specifically in the area of the Cassero, the artisan district of Maresca.

The new headquarter has a covered area of about 1500 square meters, with all the necessary production departments, administrative and design offices, a test room for prototypes, as well as a large material warehouse and the availability of large outdoor spaces.

In this period we start new collaborations with companies as prestigious as Oto Melara (for which we build several special vehicles) and Nuovo Pignone (which entrusts the company with orders for products of strategic importance, in particular large foundry moulds for turbines, compressors and other plant parts).

Bodywork production

The activity continues to diversify: with the orders from Ansaldo Breda, Pininfarina, Piaggio and Lamborghini we enter in the railway and transport sector.

The prototypes of vehicles used by thousands of people every day, such as ETR 500, E402, VLC Lille, Tram Sirio and Metro Roma take shape in the Filoni laboratories.

Technological progress and certification of quality

In the 1990s, we further expanded our service offer and update our technologies.

We enter the agricultural machinery and household appliances sector with prototypes of tractors, coffee machines, etc.

Vehicles become a specialty of the company: over the years we have made a large number of prototypes of trams, subways, seats and armchairs, motorcycles and cars, vans, trucks and even a snowcat!

We collaborate with some important Italian companies for the construction of the first working electric vehicle prototypes, using traditional batteries and bodywork made of innovative materials.

In these years, the technical office has been strengthened and with people and CAD / CAM technologies; the spaces still increase with the addition of a new shed.

In 1994 we are one of the first companies of the province, and one of the first Italian model makers, to obtain a certification of the production process according to ISO 9002 standards, with the prestigious Lloyd’s Register.

The first branded products

The third generation of the family has just joined the company.

Gianni, Franco’s son, joins the staff and brings the idea of diversifying the production.

It is from his idea that Stone Drill was born, our first gas engine drill. With this innovative product, the company decides enter the end consumer market and, for the first time, faces foreign markets, enjoying success and satisfactions.

After three years, a new model, more powerful and performing, is added to the production.

The activity in the transport sector is increasingly appreciated: in the early 2000s some of our customers exhibit the prototypes made by us at the Turin Motor Show and at the Bologna Motor Show.

What we are today and the challenges for the future

At the end of the previous decade we seize the opportunity offered by an European call for tenders to set up a Temporary Business Association together with 3 other companies of the area, to launch a project called VIP – Multifunctional Innovative Vehicle.

The idea was born from our to main industry events abroad, which revealed to us the need to develop ecological vehicles, which could also be used for car sharing, with the aim of improving the mobility of the future.

The project, carried out over three years and concluded in 2011, leads to the construction of a working prototype, which has been exhibited at important national and international events.

In recent years, the activity focuses mainly on the construction of models and molds for fiberglass and thermoforming, for which we offer a complete service, from design to CAM realization, up to assistance and assembly of the finished product.

At the same time, we have never stopped updating our equipments, paying attention as always to the evolution of technology and materials in our industry.

Today we have latest generation programs, shared on the company Intranet, for the digital management of production processes carried out on our 3 and 5 axis machining centers.

In the last decade, we have launched 4 new models of gas engine drills, some to replace the previous models (using more environmentally friendly engines and better performing components), others born from precise requests from the domestic and foreign market.

Thanks to the experience gained with the construction of electric vehicles, we have designed and built some types of electric trolleys for the transport of materials in different contexts and on different terrains; it is our intention to set up a production of them and market them.