Furla Progetto Italia is ready to take action. The leather goods brand has built the new headquarters in Barberino Tavarnelle (near Florence), investing around 30 million euros. It will become the heart of bag production, will employ 250 people and host the Academy for training. Regarding the market trend, Furla explains that 2021 will be a year of transition. The first quarter, meanwhile, recorded a double-digit increase in revenues.
A step towards the future
“Furla Progetto Italia is a first step towards the future of the company. It is an Italian project, because it is an investment in Italy for Italy, and it celebrates the best of Italy”, CEO Mauro Sabatini explains to WWD. The industrial complex, consisting of three buildings dedicated to offices, production and logistics, covers an area of 18,000 square meters. It is set up on a land of over 43,000 square meters. Sabatini underlined that Progetto Italia is “the result of the consolidation and integration of Effeuno into Furla, internalising and maintaining control over the most delicate phases of the production process”. Progetto Italia is located in the old headquarters of Effeuno, a production contractor that Furla has acquired in 2018, employing more than 100 workers, and producing two million bags and small leather goods a year.
The heart of production
The new complex opens at the end of the month with 130 employees. It will become the heart of Furla’s bag production, and in the future it will also host small leather goods. In September, the Bolognese company will start hiring again, and in three years’ time it expects to employ 250 people in Barberino Tavarnelle. Inside the new Furla house, there will also be the Academy: a school and a training centre. “It takes at least five years to train a craftsman specialising in leather goods”, explained Sabatini.
Analysing the company’s business, he said he recorded a double-digit decline in 2020, to consider 2021 as a year of transition, waiting for the growth that will come in 2022 or 2023. The leather goods brand has seen an increase in double-digit sales in the first quarter, with revenues in China growing by 73% compared to 2020, and that are “almost back to pre-Covid levels” said Sabatini himself.
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