Italian Minister says La Perla has been rescued
Urso went on to say: 'I'm here with you because this was a battle for Italian industry and we've fought it together, never giving up. Thanks to the exceptional efforts of the commissioners, the Italian and English liquidators, and MIMIT's staff, we've found an industrial solution for one of the most significant corporate crises in [Italy's] fashion sector, among the most complex ever faced by the Ministry. We've had to deal with multiple administrative procedures in different countries, of a seemingly impossible legal complexity. We've achieved a great success through teamwork.'
The Minister concluded by saying that 'we are ready to assign La Perla to the single entity which has bid for the brand name and the production site, and will safeguard all the jobs, having presented a concrete plan for the industrial relaunch of this long-established Italian fashion icon. We wanted this decisive moment to take place here, at [La Perla's] factory in Bologna, in the presence of the trade unions, the workers and the local authorities, because I owed it to the workers I met at the start of this dispute, when they urged me not to give up. The story of a great symbol of Italian style began in this factory, and here we're able to gauge the resilience of the Italian fashion system, one that amazes and fascinates the world.'
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It's made up of large companies and a fragmented number of SMEs, most of them family-owned. For the most part, these are great companies, but transparency, control and management of this whole ecosystem are sometimes a little difficult. FNW: Did you take any action following the Dior investigation? TB: Last year, we carried out over 5,000 audits, also in reaction to what happened to Dior. We reviewed all our practices, both in terms of supplier and order qualification, and downstream controls. We have improved our practices, which has cost us a great deal of resources and money. We have revised our charter, creating, for example, a reinforced control body to ensure that each brand reviews its own practices against criteria of excellence. The problem is that the system is so fragmented that there are still a few areas of uncertainty where we need to improve. As a reminder, in the case of the Dior investigation, the Italian competition authority ultimately found no infringement, and the Milan court revoked the judicial administration under which Manufactures Dior srl had been placed following the measures taken by the company. FNW: How can we combat the exploitation of workers in the textile sector? TB: I don't think the solution lies with the companies alone. We all need to work together with associations, regional and national authorities, to achieve greater transparency and social sustainability. This will be a process of medium-term transformation and consolidation, in which, I hope, all the strengths of Italian craftsmanship will be maintained.
