1900
V- 13-900 mean May 13, 1900
He published and ad in a newspaper in Curico, Chile, called La Prensa; he wanted to start his own rubber stamp business. After saving some money, he opened a little store, where he sold TIMBRI, the Italian word for rubber stamp.
Martin Garetto spoke a broken Spanish with a heavy Italian accent, and the word changed from "timbri" to "timbre", and that's the reason why Chileans use the idiom "timbres" when they refer to rubber stamps. That same year he opened a small stand on Agustinas St. in Santiago, Chile, where he sold rubber stamps
1919
Martin passed away, leaving behind a widow with 8 children.
1920 - 1925
Humberto, the eldest son of Martin, left school at a very young age and started selling rubber stamps during the day and manufacturing them at night. He was a very intelligent and hardworking man, which led to his little company’s growth.
He married Maria Lucero, who helped him with the manufacturing of the rubber stamps, and together they made the business grow even more. After sometime they started printing business cards, a new field in their company.
...1955
In the early 50’s, they opened the first Timbres Garetto store on Nueva York Street in Santiago, Chile; while two of his siblings had stores in other locations of the city.
Humberto and Maria divided their company, leaving Waldo, the eldest son, the printing business, while the other two sons, Humberto and Bruno specialized with them in the rubber stamp business.
1968
Humberto II added imported items to the business as well as new technology to the company, and when the new production systems were incorporated productivity raised.
1970
Bruno separated from his father and eldest brother to start working on his own. He opened a rubber stamp store on Nueva York Street, and added printing services to the business.
1985
Timbres Garetto added two of Humberto II's sons, Humberto III and Fernando. This was a very important step in the company; this young blood took them to an even higher growth. They brought in with them the latest quality control, quality circles and technological advances, like the laser engraving device, and started using polymers instead of rubber; they became the biggest rubber stamp selling factory in South America.
1997 - 1999
Laser technology was incorporated to the stamp manufactory, which allowed engraving straight from the computer to the rubber with a laser ray.
The brand AUTOMATIK was founded to manufacture automatic stamps. This opened a new field to the company, allowing them to go from great scale importations to worldwide exportations such as North and South America, Europe, Middle East and Australia.
