Gucci expands footwear manufacturing in Italy

Gucci is investing in a new industrial platform in Italy, which will provide jobs for more than 400 workers within three years. The factory, covering more than 108,000 square feet, will be dedicated to the production of uppers for Gucci sports and elegant footwear.

Work on the new building, located in Recanati, in Italy’s central Marche region, will start at the beginning of 2023 and will be finished by early 2024. Pigini, a leading footwear company that is part of Gucci’s industrial platform and is also based in Recanati, will be in charge of the construction of the building, designed to be “ground-breaking, both in terms of its construction and its environmental and climatic sustainability credentials,”. Financial details of the project were not disclosed.

“With this new factory, we wish to guarantee the continuity of the region’s manufacturing tradition, teach the craft skills of stitching and continue to pass on our passion for the product in a highly innovative environment,” said Fausto Pigini, who founded the company in 1979 and is still leading it as chief executive officer.

New employees will be brought on board gradually, starting from this year. Initially, they will be introduced to the present Pigini factory and then, before being transferred to the new space when work on it is complete, to a laboratory of more than 10,800 square feet, where dedicated training will be provided.

Pigini will offer a series of training programs for graduates and unemployed youths between the ages of 18 and 26, in order to develop a new generation of professionals, in sync with Gucci’s commitment to Made in Italy craftsmanship.

The new training programs are part of the Gucci École de l’Amour project, which, among its priorities, provides a bimonthly course at the Scuola di Fabbrica (Manufacturing School) — a syllabus developed by Gucci for the purpose of training in the production of leather goods and footwear.

“Continuing our commitment to the industry, we wish to offer our own contribution to the rehabilitation of craft skills in the eyes of young people, by offering them a unique training opportunity and stimulating professional courses in a context that focuses on the future,” explained Massimo Rigucci, CEO of ArtLab and leather goods, shoe, jewelry industrial operations at Gucci.

Since their foundation in 2018, Scuola di Fabbrica have trained more than 200 craftspeople and manufacturing specialists and more than 800 people have been trained by Gucci Ecole de l’Amour globally through their different courses. The Pigini Scuola di Fabbrica was initiated last January and its courses will run until 2024.

Gucci inaugurated its leather goods and shoe industrial complex ArtLab in 2018 in Scandicci, near Florence. ArtLab integrates all the different phases of the pipeline, ranging from the making of prototypes for all leather goods and men’s and women’s shoes; research and development, to the testing of durability of materials, for example.

Gucci is fully owned by Kering