FISA was founded after a spin off from the De Simon Group from Ubaldo and Edda De Simon, and started as a bus seating manufacturer.
In 1976 an earthquake struck the area of Osoppo and Gemona, the whole area, including our company, was destroyed. By 1978 the company was rebuilt and was operational again in the location it still is now.
A sad year for Italy due to an economic crisis of its market. During this period FISA signed a collaboration contract with the German Group called Grammer. This contract consisted in moving production of the driver seats form their factory in Amberg to Osoppo. This relationship lasted around 10 years.
In 1999 we developed a new seat family, the “FS”, this concept at that time was very innovative, it was the first rail seat to have a single iron shell that was also structural.
The economic crisis hit FISA in 2010, we saw our income reduced by 40% and many of our costumer ran out of business closing their companies. FISA had €3 millions worth of credit that was not paid. We managed to get only €1 million back.
In 2010 we started developing a new seat concept: the LEAN. This seat is very innovative, it was developed from what we learned from the FS but it was completely different. It is always based on the concept of a single iron shell, but thanks to its particular shape this time it is thinner: 1,2mm. This made the lean one of the lightest seat in the railway market.
We were chosen as the unique seating supplier for the new ETR 1000, the new high speed train for the Italian Market.
In 2013 the LEAN project was finally completed and was ready to produced. In that year we received 3 orders for the new LEAN: Stadler, Pesa and Caf.
The new LEAN seat passed the homologation requirements for the English market, this allowed FISA to receive an important order with Stadler AG: the “Greater Anglia “ project. This achievement created new opportunities and strengthened FISA presence in the English market.
In 2018 we began the first deliveries ever in UK, for an order we received from Stadler. The value of such order was 10 mln € in 2 years.
In 2020 we completed the acquisition of one of our competitors in Italy : IMET. This acquisition for us was strategic, it allows us to enter a new market and to increase our potential production.
Today IMET is focused in the manufacturing of bay tables and passenger seats for high speed trains.
In 2021 and 2022 we managed to reach revenue records.