Riccardo Di Tommaso, with his wife Fiorella Conchione, was the founder of Bernardi Group. They start to work in the clothing trade in 1975, when they opened their first store together with the Riccardo’s mother, Teresa Bernardi, from which it took the name of his 'business'.
The shop is located in San Giorgio di Nogaro, in the province of Udine, the birthplace of Riccardo Di Tommaso, inside a static structure called "the ball."
The business that was created to finance himself during his university studies becomes a winning choice because it relies on the concept of "lowest price in the market for the customer."
In those years, the mass distribution has not yet landed in Italy, the market has great space and competition within the region is practically nonexistent. The clothes offered are fashionable, good quality and prices are the lowest on the market thanks to the ability of Riccardo and  Fiorella  to identify the best suppliers and to bring the ready to wear at unbeatable prices. In a few years by the turnover increases, as well as customers.
The first shop was moved to a bigger place and in a few years other Bernardi sales were opened, initially all in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and later in Veneto with the acquisition of the first four points of sale (Rovigo, Adria, Padova and Treviso). The company is structured with a headquarters and central warehouse in 1983 and began covering the national territory.

The leap occurs at the end of the eighties, the result of another brilliant idea:
place the Bernardi shops, target-oriented family, in shopping centers that are beginning to develop in Italy. Within the large retail structures a large number of potential customers with family  target can be recalled and wide range of offers can be proposed.
The Know-how gained over the years by Bernardi’s purchasing department proves to be a key strength for the company's growth in Italy along with the ability to renew itself constantly in the assortment, promotion, selling formulas, in step with the times dictated from large-scale distribution. In the early nineties the Bernardi Group is in fact among the first companies in Italy to seek new competitive advantages by working with the markets of Southeast Asia. In 1994, Bernardi Group establishes a place of business in Bangladesh, which coordinates the production of local firms producing garments made from the group of Italian buyers.
This is the first Italian company as trading volumes in the clothing industry in Bangladesh. The entire production is made therein for the Italian market: the relocation is a competitive lever that allowed the Bernardi Group to grow and become stronger in Italy.
Logistics is another strong point of the Bernardi Group, every day the stores are stocked with new merchandise from the warehouse of Ronchis, so as to give a continuous renewal of the collections offering the latest trends at a very competitive price.