The company has its roots back in 1880, thanks to Nicola Fatano, dealer in the field of canning products and preserved fish, honey and spices.
Every year he used to leave Lecce towards the end of August, and went to make his purchases in Milan, Turin and Genoa, very important markets in the newly united Italian country.
He prepared the railway carriages which had to be sent to Lecce, for the stocks which would be necessary until the Christmas period, and so on periodically.
That period was full of difficulties: the frequent economic and social crises, the absolute uncertainty of rail links, and a widespread rate of poverty in the areas where the company used to work.

In 1908 Nicola created his first big warehouse and a shop in Marconi street, in Lecce. That was the commercial point of reference for the products he used to deal with, for the province of Lecce, which included, at that time, also Brindisi and Taranto. Some years later, he started to deal with dried fruits and fresh vegetables, which he added to the products he already dealt with. The flourishing commercial activity stopped in 1915, when, in the midst of the First World War, the national agricultural production went down of 60%.

In the meantime Raffaele, the eldest son, born in 1890, the wise, far-seeing, judicious and cautious administrator, after a conflict with his father for reasons of work, decided to ask for his dowry (which he had gained through his work) and went his way, establishing, in 1919 the Raffaele Fatano’s company.

The fascist regime improved remarkably the roads and rails system, and above all the trains timetable and the delivery time. The Italian colonialist policy made the imports of exotic fruits easier for the far-seeing Raffaele, until his untimely and sudden death in 1944, right in the middle of the Civil and World War. He is considered the symbol of the professional skill, of the solidity and constructiveness which distinguish Fatano’s family.