A family by your side

    The foundation.
    MiTi was founded in December 2008, but its roots extend from the past to settle in the second half of the Eighties. At the time Fabio, founding partner of MiTi, was in his early twenties, but he already boasted a significant work experience in the family's small businesses: his mother Eleonora used to run a perfumery in the centre of Schio, a town at the foot of the Vicenza pre-Alps, while his father Adriano owned a wholesale business selling products to hairdressers, which supplied most of the professionals in the surrounding area.
    Step by step...
    Having entered his father's business on a permanent basis, he soon realized how difficult it was to provide the customers with the adequate response for their needs. Globalization was still a little known term and the product offer was geographically limited. Despite being the undisputed leader in the creation of successful brands, the USA had not yet organized a distribution so widespread as to conquer the small local Italian companies.
    The departure towards new frontiers...
    After saving up for a while, Fabio bought a plane ticket to New York to act on his intuition. Once in the Big Apple, using a telephone directory borrowed from the hotel and relying on his elementary knowledge of the English language, he contacted the first wholesalers of personal care products located in Brooklyn and with the money he had saved, he filled a "20-foot" container with Noxzema foaming wash and Revlon Flex. Fortunately, a cargo ship from New York takes a month or so to reach Italy, which was about the time he needed to return home and contact potential buyers.
    The first steps in the world of MD...
    Having committed all his finances in this first purchase, it was extremely important to get rid of the content of the container as soon as possible. However, contacting enough stores to sell the purchased quantities would have taken too long. The fastest way seemed to be the large-scale distribution; more specifically, Fabio made an agreement with "GENERALE SUPERMERCATI" better known as GS (currently controlled by the Carrefour group), whose founders later founded Esselunga and Finiper.
    A dream in the making ...
    After placing the stock, all that remained to do was wait for the container, which, once delivered, had to be unloaded and labelled in Italian by Fabio himself with the help of a friend, who will later follow him into the newborn MiTi.
    After the payment was collected, the cycle repeated itself, allowing Fabio to travel all over the world to find innovative products at lower prices. He bought perfumes in Miami, which was a free port at the time, and that is where he met Antonio, a chef from Treviso with a strong sense for business who had just settled in the United States. Together with Antonio, he went to Panama City where he bought Oral B toothbrushes, then to Johannesburg to buy Colgate toothpaste, and to Guatemala to find the Labello lip balm.
    The winning formula? Passion...
    The formula never changed: a container was filled and shipped to Italy trying to sell it before its arrival, in order to have the necessary resources to buy other products. In 1988, Fabio married Silvia, a 21-year-old girl with whom he shared a burning passion: the motorcycle. Silvia worked for Giannino, her father, who used to run two different businesses, one of which sold videotapes and photographic material.
    Year after year, responding to the needs of each market ...
    As the years went by, the big brands started penetrating the Italian market in an increasingly evident way by opening branches with national VAT numbers to facilitate bureaucracy while, conversely, large groups voluntarily approached a direct purchase strategy, maximizing profits and coordinating advertising campaigns.
    Even the family grows!
    Meanwhile, in 1991, Fabio and Silvia welcomed their first child, Giacomo. The seriousness and sense of responsibility shown by Fabio impressed Giannino, his father-in-law, to the point of offering him to move and reorganize, according to the needs of the market, the activity carried out up to that moment, using the VAT number and the funds of the videotapes business. Fabio accepted, and focused on Giannino's company. In the same period, Angela, Fabio and Silvia's second child, was born.
    Over time, the company became a "reference catalyst" for personal care and parapharmaceutical products, effectively simplifying the administrative management of large chains overburdened by the management of an endless number of suppliers. In the meantime, even the big pharmaceutical brands started entering the world of large-scale distribution, as quantities and turnover were remarkable and coveted by companies that were already well established but not yet organized to serve the large-scale distribution.
    After so much effort ... It was time for the rewards!
    The business grew to the point of being recognized as a market leader in the distribution of the categories of goods it specifically dealt with. The years went by, with inevitable difficulties and many successes, but on 3rd March 2008, Giannino was the victim of a road accident.
    MiTi was born!
    After taking the time to think things through, Fabio decided to carry on his life's work independently, by opening MiTi in December 2008.
    And what about 2009? It was Gemma's year!
    In 2009 Fabio and Silvia's third and last child, Gemma, was born. MiTi became a joint stock company in 2011, expanding its offer of services for customers and suppliers on a daily basis, to the point of becoming today the undisputed point of reference for MD...
    The story of a family!
    MiTi S.p.A. is currently managed by Fabio, together with his children Giacomo and Angela, with the support of 59 expert colleagues who carry on this passionate “family story” every day.