LVMH‘s DIOR has acquired a new 7,500 square meter factory in Scandicci, owned by the furniture company Savio Firmino, to transform it into a handbag factory. The operation promises to be strategic, given that in Scandicci the areas left free for production activities can now be counted on the fingers of one hand, and given that leather goods are gaining ever greater weight (and profitability) in the balance sheets of the major international brands.
Dior already has an office in Scandicci, which has at least 200 employees engaged in administrative activities, prototyping and production of bags in fine leathers. The nearby expansion will make it possible to expand the production section, and therefore to have direct control of a slice of the leather goods supply chain, in line with what many other luxury brands are doing.
In the Scandicci-Pontassieve district, the new. Saint Laurent (Kering group), Louis Vuitton (Lvmh) and Tod’s (Della Valle family) handbag factories are being designed or built, while Balenciaga (Kering) has established itself (and is now completing the second phase of the factory) in Cerreto Guidi, still in the metropolitan city of Florence, and Givenchy (LVMH) opened in Bagno a Ripoli in place of Fendi, which built a 30 thousand square meter factory nearby, inaugurated last October .
The Tuscan leather goods district has now become the capital of made in Italy bags and the area where the ‘knowledge’ of the sector is concentrated. The problem of the lack of personnel and the training of specialized figures remains strong: all the big brands that have opened factories in recent years have set up internal academies, to train young people directly by supporting them with experienced leather craftsmen.
Dior had already invested at the end of last year in the supply chain in Tuscany, still in the leather supply chain. The French maison has secured the company Art Lab srl of the tanning district of Santa Croce sull’Arno (Pisa), specialized in digital prints and manual finishing on leather for the big fashion brands.
Art Lab (9.6 million turnover in 2021), founded in the late 1980s by the entrepreneur Marcello Tatoni, was the first company to experiment with innovative techniques and original treatments for the leather of bags and shoes, through airbrushes, infilling, inkjet.
Today it is one of the names of excellence in the special manufacturing segment, watched with increasing interest by the big brands for its ability to give added value and uniqueness to fashion products. Its wealth lies above all in its skills, in that artistic laboratory creativity that Dior has decided not to let slip at a time when supply chains are becoming increasingly important, due to the global difficulty in finding raw materials, semi-finished products and workforce .
DIOR invests in factory in Scandicci, Italy
More from NEWS
Alexander McQueen is cutting 20% of its staff
Alexander McQueen is cutting 55 jobs at its London headquarters, representing 20% of its staff, as it struggles with falling sales, …
GUCCI owner Kering continues downfall but there are hopes for recovery
Sales at Gucci fell by 14% in the third quarter with overall group sales down 5% on a like-for-like basis according to …
Hermes third quarter sales rose by five percent to 3.9 billion euros
HERMES said sales growth in the United States accelerated slightly in the third quarter by 7.2 percent to 714 million …
