The future of Prada, the global luxury brand with 3.6 billion in profits, will pass through Central Italy, and specifically through Tuscany and the Marche region, where the group has decided to invest in order to broaden its productive capacity in the next three years. The industrial plan for 2014-2016, recently presented by CEO Patrizio Bertelli, includes a sizable commitment by the maison to build four new production sites in Italy, which as early as this year, will bring the group’s number of Italian workers to 4,200 (of the approximately 13,500 employees overall), and which will add an additional 700 jobs (beyond the current 4,000) for Prada workers in Italy.
The four new establishments, which will add to the eleven already operational in Italy (4 for leather working, 3 for footwear, and 4 for “ready to wear” fashion), will all be completed by the end of 2015: according to the plan, the first one to be completed will be the garment factory in Ancona; this will be followed by the logistics hub in Tuscany, a footwear plant in Civitanova Marche, and a leather working site near Florence. The industrial strengthening is functional to the programs to potentiate the network of stores worldwide: “These growth plans – Bertelli explained while presenting the triennial objectives – require an increasingly stronger industrial and productive base. This is why we chose to strengthen our logistics and to open four new plants in Italy, in order to continue providing that Made in Italy quality that made us famous around the world.” Italy’s four new plant therefore appeal to 4 of Prada’s necessities: investing on the quality of Italian manufacturing, strengthening the group’s industrial know-how, and increasing their in-house productive capacity.
To these four Italian factories, Prada adds an ulterior wager on the Tuscan territory. In fact, they announced that Tuscany would be the site of their new headquarters, designed by Guido Canaly – an architect from the Emilia Romagna region – which will, beginning in 2015, will host the Prada Technical Academy: starting next year, the school will train approximately 60 youths between the ages of 16 and 21, in the artisanship of the Made in Italy.
In Italy, the Prada group generated approximately 550 million in revenues, approximately 16% of its overall turnover. The most important areas, as pertains to the groups profits, are the Far East, with approximately 1.3 billion, and Europe (excluding Italy) with nearly 800 million.
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