The protection of the health and safety of our employees comes first. For this reason, the Albini Group has decided to close its factories ten days before the closure imposed by the decree. I remind you that our main office – where over 700 employees out of a total of 1400 are employed – is a few kilometers from Nembro and Alzano Lombardo, areas that have paid a very high price to Covid and our entrepreneurial reality is strongly radicalized in this area that has hosted us for 144 years.
We left – after closing – on May 4th with 30% of employees in absolute compliance with the new rules, favoring remote working wherever possible and therefore for all offices and guaranteeing space and social distancing in the production departments. I have to say however, even before the pandemic, social distancing was already in practice.
Despite the difficult situation for the entire sector, the Albini Group can look to the future with moderate optimism relying above all on the results of the investments made in recent years, such as direct control of the entire production chain, a basic condition for real sustainability of the entire production cycle.
It is precisely innovation and research that have been the basis of all our proposals for years. I remember that for a year Albini Next was inaugurated, a Think Tank created to drive change in the textile industry, based on the evolution of know-how and on industrial and academic partnerships.
One of the latest results of the research activity is ViroFormula, a fabric that is obtained through a combination of silver-based elements that generates a antiviral and antibacterial effect and which can be used for the production of masks, gowns, shirts, jackets, trousers and any other type of garment.
What reassures us is that the products we design, conceive and manufacture, the partners we select and the way we work guarantee absolute excellenceunderstood as a corporate culture that is handed down and evolves from generation to generation. Quality, service, reliability and sustainability are the way to be able to compete on increasingly competitive global markets.
In general, however, the fate of the textile-fashion chain is difficult to predict. It will be necessary to know the reaction of the markets to the pandemic and to the subsequent reopenings. We we export 70% of the product to 80 countries in the world, a risk diversification strategy that required long work and important investments that should protect us from the crises of individual countries but the problem is that with the Coronavirus the whole world, more or less, has stopped. We will have to wait for the reopening of the shops and the recovery of international tourism - which is one of the driving elements of luxury - to express more precise assessments and more reliable forecasts.
Who at this moment is able to predict what the recovery in consumption will be like? Who can comment on the performance of fundamental markets such as the United States and Asia?
