The history of Fratelli Carli (Carli Brothers) began long ago, in 1911, when the family, owners of a prosperous printing plant, enjoyed an abundant harvest from its olive grove at Costa Rossa, in the hills surrounding Imperia. The olive crop was abundant and of excellent quality, as well as the olive oil produced from it. The abundance was so far in excess of the family’s needs that it inspired an enterprising idea in Giovanni Carli, one of the sons. Rather than selling the oil to merchants in Imperia, why not selling it directly to families, with personal home delivery to acquire their trust?

After leaving the printing plant in charge of his brothers, Giovanni Carli turned his attention to advertising and promotion; firstly by bicycle, then by motorcycle, he began riding the streets searching for valuable customers in Liguria (the region that extends along 160 miles of the Northern Mediterranean coast from the city of La Spezia, South of Genoa, to Ventimiglia, at the French border). Since his main objective was to acquire new customers, after a while Giovanni Carli also moved to lower Piedmont, the territory that extends North from the hinterland of Western Liguria. The exceptional quality of the oil made it easy to sell. At that point, the Carli printing plant became an indispensable instrument for producing price lists, personal letters and invitations to procure clients.