Dior also joins the long list of international fashion brands that are investing in the supply chain in Tuscany. The French maison part of Lvmh, the most important luxury group in the world, has secured – according to reports from Il Sole 24 Ore – the Artlab company of the tanning district of Santa Croce sull’Arno (Pisa), specialized in digital prints and in the manual finishing of leather for the big fashion brands.
Artlab, founded in the late 80s by the entrepreneur Marcello Tatoni, was the first company to experiment with innovative techniques and original treatments for the leather of bags and shoes, through airbrushes, tampons, inkjets. Today it is one of the names of excellence in the special manufacturing segment, watched with increasing interest by the big brands for its ability to give added value and uniqueness to fashion products. In 2020 (last balance sheet filed) Artlab – which is now owned by Marcello’s children, Ilaria and Dario, and Andrea Balleri – had a turnover of 4.7 million euros with a profit of 268 thousand euros.
Its wealth lies above all in its skills, in that artistic laboratory creativity that Dior has decided not to let slip at a time when supply chains are becoming increasingly important, due to the global difficulty in finding raw materials, semi-finished products and workforce . Securing strategic links in the supply chain means having the product on schedule.
Lvmh’s focus on the supply chain
For the Lvmh group this is the fifth operation planned or carried out in Tuscany since October: in the last month and a half there was the inauguration of the Fendi bag factory of 30 thousand square meters and 50 million investment in the municipality of Bagno a Ripoli ( Florence); the announcement of the opening of a Givenchy bag factory in the spaces vacated by Fendi in Ponte a Ema, also in the municipality of Bagno a Ripoli; the design of a Louis Vuitton bag factory in Pontassieve (Florence); the acquisition, through the Metiérs d’Art division, of the majority of the historic Nuti Ivo tannery, one of the most important names in the Santa Croce sull’Arno district (Pisa), specialized in luxury leather goods (in 2021 it had a turnover of 58.7 million euros with 8.65 million net profit) and part of a family group made up of seven tanneries with more than 130 million in revenues. Now comes the operation in special manufacturing by Dior, confirming an industrial strategy that aims to ensure those who know how to do with their hands.