This blog gives a brief history of the life and work of Leo Conci, a man born on the island of Elba in the province of Toscana in 1909,
who married Pina Bergamin, a Veneta in Adelaide in 1944.
The image above is the engagement photo of Leo and Pina, taken c 1943.
Deni Conci says that his father, Leo Conci, was a man who created many opportunities to change his working life – “he was a man of 1000 jobs.” Leo himself acknowledged that he took many paths in his working life and admitted that he had had more jobs than he could recall. Because of his entrepreneurial disposition, he was ready to take on challenges in business, and he involved his family in his many ventures.
In addition to his many business interests, Leo took on a very significant role in 1972 when he was one of four guarantors who made it possible for the newly formed Veneto Club of Adelaide to purchase land to build the Club at Beverley. Leo was a member of the first two Committees and for his contribution, he was recognised as a Life and a Foundation member. He was also involved in the establishment of the Italian Club and the Club Toscano in Adelaide.
From Capoliveri to Adelaide
Leo Ameleto Conci was born at Capoliveri on the Isola d’Elba (the Isle of Elba) on 16 April 1909. He was the only child of Nello, a miner, and Caterina Magnanini, a seamtress. In 1925 Nello became unemployed after the mine closed, and it was difficult for many families to survive on the island. Nello was sponsored by an acquaintance, and the family arrived in Adelaide in 1925.
In Adelaide, the Depression was affecting the working lives of people and although jobs were scarce, Leo got his first job at 15 years old as an apprentice to a shoe-maker on North Terrrace in the City of Adelaide.
Later, he worked with his father clearing land near Karoonda, about 160 kms east of Adelaide. In the meantime, Caterina had found a dressmaking job in Adelaide.
Father and son embarked on a new venture, bought a truck and an abandoned quarry in the Adelaide Hills and extracted stone for road base. After about two years of hard work, the quarry was destroyed by flooding, and Leo and his father had to find other work. For a short time, they leased land and set up a market garden.
Life in Australia changed for the Conci family in 1936 when Nello died of a heart attack, aged 54 years, and the following year Leo and his mother moved to Broken Hill to live with relatives from Capoliveri. Leo worked in a lead mine for four years before he and his mother returned to Adelaide. At that time, he started a building firm with three friends but it was dissolved after a short period.
Marriage to Pina – and family life
At the age of 35 years, Leo’s life transformed when he met Giuseppina (Pina) Bergamin. Her parents had migrated to Adelaide in 1939 from San Martino di Lupari in the province of Padova in the Veneto region.
Leo and Pina, aged 22 years, married on 1st January 1944.
Together they opened several milk bars in the City of Adelaide, and one later became the Star Grocery in Hindley Street which sold continental goods.
Leo and Pina had four children, Deni, Noreen, Lido and Liana.
Leo’s mother, Caterina, lived with Leo and Pina and the family until she died in 1974.
It was never a problem for Leo to be involved in two or three activities at a time. He took on other jobs which included being a second-hand car dealer and a land agent. He renovated several old homes in St Peters where the family lived for some years. He took an interest in manufacturing objects for domestic use and this included an initial venture making cement pots and other items which Pina painted before they were sold including stock that went interstate.
Business ventures in the 1950s
In 1954, Leo started in a venture that would determine the rest of his working life. He began working in wrought iron and made fences and balustrades.
In 1958 he formed his partnership, L Conci & Sons, and opened the retail store across the road from the airport and became the largest manufacturer of wrought iron garden furniture in Adelaide.
Pina painted the furniture, and initially, Deni was involved in forming and welding the pieces while Leo was responsible for sales, delivery and marketing. All the items were built at the workshop at Brooklyn Park.
Development of Leo Conci & Sons
Leo Conci & Sons was considered an important participant in the furniture manufacturing sector in Adelaide. From the late 1950s, the business won prizes at the Royal Show.
In 2018, an exhibition at the Jam Factory, ‘Adelaide Modern: Past. Present. Future,’ featured Leo Conci & Sons as one of six South Australian furniture companies that made their mark in the 1960s. The design of furniture reflected new family traditions because of the introduction of television in homes.
The Conci outdoor metal furniture settings were known as a very significant feature in backyards and patios in suburban Adelaide in the 1960s.
The essay for the 2018 exhibition described the work of the Conci factory and its outstanding role as a furniture making business in Adelaide:
The Conci family were remarkable innovators. They designed and built their own tooling and were early adopters of the latest technologies from Europe such as electrostatic paint spraying. The iconic (and in Adelaide, almost omnipresent) small mesh chair was designed by Leo’s teenage son Dino [corrected by Deni to read, “designed by Leo, Pina and Deni with a metal fabricator” ] in 1959. Like all Conci pieces it was manufactured in Brooklyn Park where the family made everything from the tool making to the upholstery.
By 1960 with a few employees, including an Italian permanent/part-time toolmaker from GMH, the business was producing a range of wrought iron garden furniture including the bucket chair settings in large quantities.
Another evolution of the design included upholstery. After a few years, the rest of the family joined the business although they were still school students.
Deni remembers:
Dad oversaw everything. I was on tooling and machines. Mum was designer and painter at this time. Noreen had a clerical role and Lido and Liana were in the upholstery area. There was no escape on weekends. Work had to be done.
Deni and other employees prepared the iron work components for chairs and tables and a paesana, of Leo’s, Anna Ballerini, was spot-welder.
After Deni and Lido married, their respective wives, Sandra and Marisa, took on roles in sales.
The evolution of the business
Several Italian welders arrived either before or after their shifts at GMH and completed the welding. During the winter, the stock built up, and it was ready by the time of the Royal Adelaide Show in September.
Leo watched over the continuing development of the business which continued to evolve and met the changing trends in furniture. Deni recalls that Leo had a favourite saying, “Nothing is impossible.”
In another new direction, Leo became an importer in 1964 following his first return visit to Italy where he attended the Furniture Fair in Milan. In 1983, the business brought 43 containers of furniture from Italy – a demonstration of the popularity of the ornate Italian designs. The business continued to import Italian furniture until the late 1980s.
By the mid 1960s, Leo Conci and Sons attracted contracts for commercial furniture such as tubular tables and stacking chairs for hotels. Another successful change of direction was manufacturing timber furniture produced in a factory at Beverley by Deni and six employees from about 1990 to 2007. The business adapted and produced manufactured bespoke furniture with hi-tech mechanisation in 2000.
While he managed Leo Conci and Sons and he travelled to Italy for business, he also found time to enjoy visits to Capoliveri. He totted up about 40 visits to Italy, sometimes with Pina, and he loved spending time with relatives and friends in the place he was born.
The influence of Pina in the family
Son-in-law, Romano Rubichi, acknowledges (Pina), in the following statement:
Giuseppina, Leo’s wife of a lifetime, was the anchor of a successful marriage, dedicated and tenacious supporter of Leo’s active life. Their four children could always rely on her generosity and loving care. Her sweet nature made her always accessible to family and friends.
Later years
In later life, Leo and Pina enjoyed their family, children and nine grandchildren. They loved holidays in Italy and the opportunity to socialise with their friends at home. They had a reputation for offering hospitality at their home at West Beach and people today remember the parties and dancing.
Leo spent time at each of the three Italian clubs that he assisted to establish, the South Australian Italian Association or the Italian Club (Leo was a member of the 1967 Building Fund Committee and a Foundation member), the Veneto Club and the Club Toscano.
In the eulogy at his funeral, Leo was remembered fondly by his family:
During his years of hard honest work, nonno always ensured he enjoyed the pleasures in life. Nonno enjoyed socialising with family and friend and going to parties, where he would grace the dance floor like no other man. Every woman would watch and dream of having a dance with nonno, but his wife was the lucky one!
Leo died in 2003 at the age of 94 years after a long and productive life – with many achievements in design, manufacturing and sale of furniture in South Australia and he had also made a significant contribution to the Italian community in Adelaide. Pina died in 2012 aged 89 years.
Leo Conci and Sons finished operating in 2019 after more than 60 years in the metal and timber manufacturing furniture business in Adelaide.
Leo Conci, Romano Rubichi and Madeleine Regan
12 October 2025
Photos supplied by the family unless otherwise indicated.
Sources of information
- Deni Conci
- Conci family – Eulogy at Leo’s funeral, December 2003
- Pino Bosi, Toscani di la’, Toscani di qua, Catalogazione nella pubblicazione (CIP) a cura della Biblioteca della Giunta regionale Toscana, 2001.
- Sam Gold, Yolanda Lopez, Scot Van Manen, “Conci Furniture.”
- Romano Rubichi, Obituary, “Life a work in progress” The Advertiser, 27 December 2003, p 52.
- Essay, “Adelaide Modern: Past, Present, Future”, exhibition held at the Jam Factory October – December 2018.