PIEVE DI CADORE
From the extreme periphery it is possible to work profitably for the rich of the world. In the delicate high fashion sector. But also making a virtue of necessity.
Galvalux in Pieve di Cadore – because this is the company we are talking about – will return to the eyewear sector, recovering processes that were done in China. A challenge, therefore, across the board to the pandemic, like the one told by Angelo De Polo, the president.
2020 was also an annus horribilis for you. Yet you have distributed the few remaining margins to the 110 collaborators: 350 euros of shopping vouchers, to be spent in some markets of Cadore, and 1000 euros of production bonus. Why?
«The staff is our most important asset. Last year we used a bit of layoffs to keep these professionals. Our collaborators sacrificed themselves and we dutifully repaid them ».
The next government support measures will include layoffs until the end of the year and a freeze on layoffs until June.
«I believe that blocking layoffs means preventing business development. Even if it is unthinkable to abandon people to their fate. I am convinced that there will be spills, but not sensational considering the industrial recovery ».
How has your company evolved over the years?
«It was born in the eyewear sector, but when eyewear went into crisis in 2008-2009, it diversified its production. Today, eyewear accounts for around 10% of our turnover, we do the bulk of it in the fashion sector, metal accessories that go to high fashion leather goods ».
How did you conquer this particular market niche? And from Pieve di Cadore, therefore from the extreme periphery of Paris, Milan, Florence.
«Until 2010 this sector has never used color, paints. We have created a research and development center which is also a quality certification laboratory. From here we started. High fashion demands that each of its pieces be analyzed and certified. And our company has guaranteed this. Only by giving this world the certainty that even painting can offer high quality standards, have we guaranteed the market spaces on which we count today ».
A resilient industry, yours, but we could also say pioneering in terms of ecological transition, as Europe claims today.
«Attention, we come to do the audits twice a year, our clients do not joke. We have focused a lot on sustainability which is an easy word to say but then we have to invest ».
You have just completed a large investment.
«Yes, in the last company expansion we have invested 6 million, 2 million in alternative energies, solar panels for 220 kw, cogeneration for 250 kw. Then we put the resources on the water purification plants because we are in a territory that should become the symbol of sustainability in order to be again tourist and receptive in that respect and then also on the cleaning of the air with heat recovery systems. ‘air. From all the air we throw out we recover 80% of the heat that passes through the purification filters ».
As if to say that, in an area protected by Unesco, there can also be industrial activities. Even medium-sized industries with 110 employees like yours, with a turnover of 20 million. The covid, however, you have also suffered.
“We have had years of continuous growth, + 20%, + 30% but in 2020 for Covid, this growth has stopped and indeed we have decreased the turnover by about 30%”.
Are you recovering?
“The trend of these first months is similar to that of 2020, but the projections say that everything should return to the same level as 2019, which had registered an increase of 40%. We as a company are not suffering, but in positive territory ».
The pandemic has really changed consumption.
“If people can’t go around it is also hard to go shopping, because we know very well that high fashion accessories, and we work for all the most important brands in the world, are bought in cities of art. in Venice, Florence, Rome, Paris, Milan. It is difficult for a lady to buy a 3,000 euro bag if she has to stay at home in her pajamas ».
When will the recovery arrive?
«China has restarted, also Japan and Korea. The United States and, in part, Russia are starting up again. Europe is a bit of a standstill. Not everything, of course, will be the same. Today we expect fashion shows, no one does stock; they want to see the reactions of the audience. There has been an impressive saving in these two years and as soon as we can move some small whims we will allow it ».
Pieve di Cadore, therefore, indulges the whims of the rich. Great satisfaction.
«There are still many rich people in the world. We are doing really high, high fashion, we work for the most important brands. But something will also change for eyewear ».
The eyewear industry is still experiencing difficulties.
«However, we are seeing important signs of return. The bulk of the eyewear had gone to China. We are receiving significant requests to have local reference companies with quality and service, with quality controls ».
Your answer?
“We are planning to return to the eyewear sector, a sector we had frequented for 30 years”.
How do you manage to resist despite the many, too many infrastructural problems of Cadore?
«To work in this world, we have a daily service with three vans, two go around Tuscany and one goes up and down at night to carry our things. It is obvious that the roads, as they are now, with eight construction sites from Ponte nelle Alpi to Pieve di Cadore, do not help us. It is unthinkable that tourists queue for 3 hours to go home on Sunday or 3 hours to come up. Then they get bored and go to other places. But, beware, the infrastructural interventions we ask for must not have an impact ». –