Let's discover the Fratelli Pinna brand: here is our interview

The Fratelli Pinna Company is a agricultural company that offers quality products from Sardinia: extra virgin oil, a wide variety of preserved foods, and the most typical wines of the territory.
This company was founded in the 1940s by father Sebastiano, and later, in 1997, passed on to the children Antonella, Gavino, and Leonardo. Since those years, it has evolved significantly, and especially thanks to the valuable advice of mother Caterina, they chose to invest in quality and respect agronomic practices and transformation processes that enhance the characteristics of raw materials.

The protection of the territory and its biodiversity, according to the Fratelli Pinna, is a crucial aspect in giving value and identity to the products that Sardinia offers.
For more than 70 years, the production philosophy of the company has been focused on the pursuit of the highest quality and the preservation of the territory: integrated pest management is the agricultural technique that the Fratelli Pinna have chosen to enhance olives, artichokes, asparagus, and grapes. This practice provides a non-invasive defense of crops for the surrounding ecosystem, drastically reducing the use of pesticides and agrochemicals.
The respect for nature and its balances, along with a search for the best transformation techniques, are the core values on which the Fratelli Pinna's company philosophy is based.

We love these artisans, these producers of unique, certified, and award-winning delicacies: they are true treasures embedded in our Peninsula, between seas and mountains, and in the most remote streets of villages and countryside. We do not stop at just experiencing their products but want to discover more closely the protagonists of this brand. That’s why we sent some questions to those who manage the communication with us.

Stay with us to learn about the Fratelli Pinna Company: read the answers!
 

• Who are we talking to?
  I am Antonella Pinna, co-owner along with my brothers, Gavino and Leonardo, my mother Caterina, and my nephew Francesco of the Fratelli Pinna Agricultural Company.
   
• Is the company family-run? In what year was the company founded and who was the founder?
  It is a predominantly family-run company. Our company was founded by our grandparents in the 1930s and then managed, since the late 1950s, by our parents, SEBASTIANO and MARIA CATERINA.
   
• Who was the founder and what was their background or the professional field they came from, if different from the current one?
  Grandfather was an entrepreneur who mainly dealt with the dairy sector. He purchased a significant portion of the company. Our parents further developed it by acquiring more land and overseeing it directly. Our property consists of an olive-growing area, with Bosana-only olive groves and a privately owned mill in the countryside of Sassari; a horticultural part, with artichoke fields in Ittiri (Sassari), certainly one of the most suitable areas for the production of high-quality Sardinian thorny artichokes; a winemaking part, and finally, a section dedicated to sheep farming.
   
• What is the real reason or the triggering event behind the birth of this company and when did it happen?
  The current development of the company occurred under our management. The triggering event that prompted the three of us siblings to get involved more seriously was the illness - a severe stroke - that suddenly struck our father, Sebastiano Pinna, on March 27, 1997. In fact, the day before, he had signed the contract for the purchase of a new company mill. My brothers were already involved in the production reality, while I was not. This event could not leave us indifferent and encouraged all of us - in varying degrees - to take a more active role in the company, contributing our energies and diverse skills: Gavino for the horticultural and winemaking part; Leonardo for the olive-growing part, while I took care of the commercial aspect.
   
• What is your relationship with your land of origin and its uniqueness? And why do you want to tell its story with your products?
  It is a very strong relationship, cemented by beautiful memories that have linked us from a young age to our estate, a witness to happy moments. We could not stay away from it, even when life events had kept us distant from it: my brother Gavino, an army officer; Leonardo, right after his studies in accounting and economics; and I, for many years in Lombardy and professionally devoted to teaching legal subjects. When the opportunity arose, we did not hesitate to dedicate our resources and expertise to realize this dream: enhancing what our ancestors passed down to us and what our beautiful land offers us with its fruits.
   
• What was the first product you created?
  Certainly oil. In fact, my family has always produced oil, which was sold in bulk to Tuscan buyers. The first mill with stone grinders was purchased in the 1940s, then succeeded by increasingly advanced technological plants. In 1998 we produced our first bottled oil and named it “Antichi Uliveti del Prato” (the olive groves are indeed located in the Prato Comunale area). It immediately received numerous national and international awards and recognitions. Those years also saw our meeting with the great journalist Luigi Veronelli, who encouraged us to produce the Denocciolato oil from Bosana and, subsequently, only denocciolato, and to use it to preserve the vegetables produced by our company.
   
• What is the product that you now consider "flagship"?
  Even today, oil remains our central product, although the line of preserves and wines has been added to it.
   
• And what is the product that throughout the company's history has most represented its beating heart, philosophy, and soul?
  I have no doubts: the nobility of oil, which, for its characteristics and uniqueness, has characterized the great quality of our preserves and has been our first passion. We can call this feeling that binds us to it nothing else. And everything revolves around our love for the land, great respect for it, never betraying it, respecting its life cycle, starting from proper waste management. In the production cycle, everything goes on in respect of nature: the ancient olive trees know no irrigation, except for that which comes from the sky; our two-phase mill extracts oil without the need for water; the energy we use comes from the company’s photovoltaic system; the extracted pits are used as biomass, and from the pomace, phenols destined for pharmaceutical companies are extracted.
   
• Let’s talk about today: how much has the company grown since its founding? Can we have some numbers?
  The company currently has an area of about 170 hectares of land. It has been enriched with a new large structure, which houses the mill for oil extraction, the laboratory for preserves production, and a winery for wine. A slogan that well represents us: SARDINIA INSIDE
   
• At this moment: more tradition or more innovation?
  Certainly innovation, without forgetting that it is based on tradition.
   
• What has been the most important evolution of the company to get to where it is today?
  Many encounters with special people who have managed to understand and appreciate our greatest dream: enhancing the excellence of the products from our land.
   
• Talking about the future: what kind of tomorrow awaits the company? Are there plans for any changes or new evolutionary processes?
  Plans are in place to adapt the old farmhouse for a hospitality activity.
   
• Do you plan to create new products?
  We have many ideas that all trend towards innovation.
   
• Having focused on Spaghetti & Mandolino, how important is online sales for you, what has been your relationship with this sales channel in the past, and how do you see it in the future?
  The online sales channel is one that nowadays cannot be overlooked. It has become strategic for connecting with consumers. And Spaghetti e Mandolino is one of the most interesting formats/brands among the existing ones.
   
• Value: what was, what is today, and what will it be in the future for your company?
  Affective-sentimental in origin, updated according to the combination of tradition-innovation, and therefore projected to meet a demand that is increasingly characterized in terms of authentic excellence. And, as always, the consumer will be the best judge of our production and market choices.

S&M