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They lead a company that from Montegranaro, in the Marche region, has made its way around the world in 50 years of history, building a precious niche in the wholesale channel and, even more importantly, cementing a relationship of trust with end consumers. Gianni and Jerry Giannini have managed to get Doucal’s, a company founded by their father Mario in 1973, through all the crises of recent years and look to the short and medium term future with cautious optimism.
Pitti Uomo, Doucal’s celebrates 50 years of history
«There are many elements of uncertainty surrounding us. We are all, I believe, pervaded by a feeling of fragility, at times of danger: this applies to people and companies – says Gianni Giannini in the showroom on via Gesù, in the luxury district of Milan –. We cannot do much about the great events and shocks taking place in the world and even more so we must focus on the things we know how to do and which, in concrete terms, bring satisfaction and results. For a footwear company, this means not making compromises on product quality and attention to people and our territory: Doucal’s would not exist and would not have grown without the passion of those who founded it and those who work there today” .
2023 will close with a turnover of more than 25 million, an increase on 2022, albeit slightly, but it is difficult to make predictions for 2024: «As I was saying, there are many factors that we cannot control, starting from the fixed costs linked to ‘energy, for example, which have started to rise again – underlines Giannini -. I am starting to receive requests for upward revisions to quotes from some suppliers, who in turn are experiencing increased costs. We will do everything we can to not transfer the increases to the price lists, but it will be a complex year. Even more so, we will focus on projects that are identifying for our family and the brand.”
Giannini refers primarily to the expansion of the Montegranaro headquarters (province of Fermo): «From the beginning we saw it not only as a necessity, given the growth we are recording, also thanks to the introduction of the women’s collections. It is also an opportunity to set up spaces and even working times differently, a piece of the idea of the “new craftsman” that we have been pursuing for some time.” The adjective “new” has a double meaning for the Giannini brothers: «Factory work has changed and we must make young people and their families understand it, showing them how much satisfaction, including economic, the jobs we offer can give. The craftsman is also “new” due to the challenges that the digital revolution and an authentic green turning point poses to everyone.”
When Gianni Giannini made the first inspection of the spaces that will host the new factory, he was asked to clear it out completely, sending everything to the landfill and starting an incineration procedure. «Knowing well that there would be different costs and times, we chose to separate that mountain of waste, because that is what it was about, and to recycle or dispose of it in the most sustainable way possible. It’s really a question of principle: it’s about behaving responsibly even when no one sees us or requires us to by law.”