Franchi

The Franchi family established the Luigi Franchi arms factory in Brescia, Italy, in 1868.^{2, 1} Before then the family had worked in the silk business.¹ Its first gunmaking shop stood in an industrial area known for ore mining and metal manufacture.² Later guns included the Imperial Montecarlo side-by-side and the 48 AL semi-automatic.³

Franchi joined the Beretta Group at the end of 1995 and kept its own design office and sales network.⁴ The business is now Benelli Armi S.p.A. Divisione Franchi.⁵ The division’s address is Via della Stazione 50, Urbino.⁶

Franchi began as a family gunmaking business in Brescia and opened a new factory there in 1966.^{2, 7} It is now based in Urbino as a division of Benelli Armi.^{6, 5}

In 1987 Società Costruzioni Industriali Milano bought Franchi.⁸ At the end of 1995 Franchi entered the Beretta Group.⁴ It kept its own design office and sales network.⁴