Gruppo Florence: one big family in the name of luxury

At the start there were three companies that wanted to join forces, and in 2020 three major investors took up the project and founded Gruppo Florence. They are the Vam Investments fund, controlled by Francesco Trapani, Fondo Italiano d’Investimento and Italmobiliare. It is thanks to these solid investors that the Group has been able to grow quickly, and it is already present in 12 Italian regions.

“We will cover more soon,” explains Attila Kiss, CEO of Gruppo Florence. “The core idea of the project is to bring the best of Italian manufacturing together within a single industrial platform, where the particular character of each family business lives on, but within a more structured framework.

With the strong backing of the investors and an experienced management team ready to provide support in an increasingly challenging segment, the companies can offer luxury brands a high-quality product, with ever greater reliability and flexibility on delivery times, and always with the utmost attention to sustainability.”

Why these new acquisitions? Was it the entrepreneurs who approached the project?

“Rather than acquisitions, we like to talk about ‘entries’, because in practice the entrepreneurs who buy a minority stake in Gruppo Florence become shareholders themselves, sharing common goals. Governance is one of the secrets of our success. The Group's very creation in October 2020 came out of a partnership between the entrepreneurs of the first three companies, Giuntini, Ciemmeci Fashion and Mely’s, who decided to join forces with the support of three major investors. After that, other companies that learned of Gruppo Florence's goal of becoming the most important manufacturing hub in Italy serving international luxury fashion brands wanted to join. On other occasions it was us who courted some of the many small artisan excellences we have in Italy.”

How many people does the Group have at the moment? What is the combined turnover?

“Today the Group has 17 companies, working with more than 50 international brands, with a turnover of over €360 million and more than two thousand employees across nine Italian regions. We expect our workforce to rise to 2,500 by the end of 2022, and we forecast passing €500 million in turnover by year end.”

What are your plans for the future?

“First of all, we expect to attract more companies, including in segments we don't yet cover, so that we can support brands in creating and producing their entire collection. We would like to offer production capacity, industrial synergies and also cross-pollination between products. In 2021 and 2022 we completed the whole clothing segment, and in the last few weeks we have also started on footwear. We expect at least five more artisan excellences to join us by the end of the year, and the first leather goods companies are about to arrive. We have already started work on consolidation, synergy and integration projects between our businesses, as well as developing additional and innovative services.

Finally, we are also planning to create our own showroom in Milan, a space where we don't intend to show the finished product or the results of our collaborations with clients, which are all confidential, but where we will display our research, our collaborations with the art world, our work with technology: in short, our expertise.”

What relationship do you have with the local area, the schools and the community where your companies operate?

“It is fundamental, because it is through its interaction with the local area that a company lives and grows, particularly in our case, where all the companies have a strong family character. As I said, we have a major project in the pipeline that will involve several companies in the area, and in particular each of our companies will promote an agreement with a vocational school to train young people in artisan work. Preserving artisan skills has become essential, because they are the real capital of these businesses, and it takes years of experience to become fully trained in the sector. Now more than ever, measures are needed to pass these skills on to new generations. Another important strand we follow is art, which is so close to the world of craftsmanship: that is why we support various local initiatives run by our companies. For example, last May Ciemmeci Fashion opened the new season of artistic and cultural initiatives at the Spazio-Arte inside its headquarters in Terrafino, in the province of Florence, with the aim of bringing manufacturing and industry closer to the world of culture, creating a pairing of work and beauty that also carries a social and civic meaning, because art and beauty belong to everyone and everyone can and should enjoy them, from the workers to the entrepreneurs to the management.”

Are you planning to hire more people? Which profiles do you need most?

“Yes, we are looking for people both on the corporate side, to strengthen company management, and in operations, with a particular focus on our core business of manufacturing skills: pattern making, tailoring, sampling, quality control and production technicians.”

Do you have difficulty finding staff? And if so, why?

“Recruiting staff is quite complex today because of the shortage of technical and professional profiles. That is why we are planning a training project to recruit skilled craftspeople.”

Are you thinking of setting up or expanding an Academy?

“Yes, that is our intention, because we believe that training skilled staff is the foundation of the excellence of Made in Italy manufacturing. We are launching a Widespread Academy project in which Gruppo Florence runs training projects in the local areas, often in collaboration with schools, aimed at raising young people's awareness of new-generation manufacturing careers. For example, we are about to start a pilot project at Giuntini, which will launch a professional tailoring programme specifically to train prototype makers, organised in collaboration with the Mita institute in Scandicci and the Tuscany Region.”

What are your plans for attracting and retaining talent?

“We intend to introduce new generations to the trades of fashion by telling them what happens before a catwalk show. We think it is important to ensure that the excellence of our Made in Italy survives, by trying to preserve its important heritage. We cannot risk losing this wealth of skills and techniques, artisan and manufacturing: we want all of it to be handed on to new generations. So we will work to bring young people closer to manual work, to craftsmanship, whose tradition and value, as well as its nobility, we want to preserve.”

Come and learn how the high-end market works, and how you can position your brand in the premium–luxury sector, selling your products or services in Italy and abroad at high prices, and so increasing your profits and margins without losing market share or sales.

Discover the live course “Margini di Lusso”, 8th edition, Friday 20 and Saturday 21 November 2026 in Milan, taught in Italian: book your place on the course page.