History of a Veneto family
The three sons of GioBatta, Giovanni, Beniamino and Pasquale Fortunato, soon decided to follow up the entrepreneurial dynamism of their father, going ahead with the Grappa distilling factory, a threshing machine business and a commercial activity for the wholesale and retail sale of liquors, all in the name of the old head of the family GioBatta.
<< "Fabbrica Liquori Poli Giovanni"
A series of pictures of Giovanni Poli while introducing his nephews to Grappa; becoming the sole proprietor of the Distillery in 1931, he gave it the name of “Fabbrica Liquori Poli Giovanni”.
In the meantime, the two oldest boys, Giovanni (1877-1964) and Beniamino (1881-1965), had married respectively Bona Maria Corrà (called Luigia, 1883-1951) and Violante Ulian (1882-1955).
Also their five sisters married in the space of just a few years, whereas Pasquale Fortunato married after the death of GioBatta which occurred in Schiavon on 10th July 1921.
<< Threshing
The threshing machine operated by a portable steam engine used by the Poli brothers in 1910, when they added the threshing activity to the Distillery and the wholesale and retail sale of liquors.
But the dynamism of the Poli brothers from Schiavon survived this fateful event and in 1926 the firm “Poli GioBatta” of the brothers Giovanni, Beniamino and Pasquale also began a wholesale trade in cocoons for producing silk.
A turning point came in 1931: Pasquale Fortunato moved with his family to Curtarolo in the Padua district, where he opened a branch of the parent distillery; Beniamino moved to a splendid house in Via Roncaglia, which in the 17th century belonged to the Counts Cornaro of Venice, and also became involved in the political activities
<< Letter with economic report
A letter of Giovanni Poli to his son Antonio, in which he comments on the trend of business.
of the Schiavon council, being a councillor from 1924 to 1926 and “podesta” from 1935 to 1943.
Giovanni, on the other hand, undertook the responsibility of personally running the distillery situated in Via Paradisi on the “Schiavonesca-Marosticana” state road, giving it his name and managing it with the help of his wife and children.
Giovanni Poli was a man of character and his entrepreneurial leadership marked the future of the entire family.
<< The first automobile
Giovanni Poli was an innovative spirit for the time: his was one of the first automobiles in the zone. It was used to carry both the grape-marc and the Grappa.
He would always say: “Sell dear but weigh correctly!”, in other words, it was right to demand a high price for his quality products, but when selling, absolutely correct behaviour was called for.
His wife Bona Maria Corrà gave him four children: Maria (1909-1991), Antonio GioBatta (called Giovanni, 1912-1999), Elisa (1914-2000) and Antonio Carmelo (called “Toni”, 1919-2001.)
<< Giovanni and Luigia
The couple Giovanni Poli (1877-1964) and Bona Maria Corrà, called Luigia, (1883-1951), married 1909 and had 4 children: Maria, GioBatta, Elisa and Antonio.
In 1934 Maria married GioMaria Cogo of Longa, a landowner, and the other members of the family worked to increase and improve the company’s business.
<< Telephone number 2
Giovanni immediately realized the importance of communication and installed the first telephone in the area. In fact, the Distillery had the phone number 2, while number 1 was that of Tel.Ve., the Telecom of that time.
<< Loyal employees
A picture of Giovanni Poli, now old but still alert, watching the loading of boilers carried out by Andrea Zonta (employed at the Distillery for 43 years) and his son Ernesto who worked for the firm from the age 13 until retirement.