With sales boom in mind, Gucci tightens grip on suppliers

Florence, where it will do prototypes of bag and shoe designs.

“We also need to make sure other brands are not stealing supply. Because of the growth that we’re having we need to protect our artisans,” Bizzarri added.

Italian brands have traditionally worked with an external network of dozens of local artisans on items such as handbags, when French peers Hermes and Vuitton almost exclusively use their own workshops.

Gucci has bought out 10 local suppliers and said it was closing in on another 10, though the shift to what the brand considers internal production will for the most part involve creating joint ventures with external workshops or giving them exclusive contracts.

Even that can help to stabilise production, however, when some manufacturers in Italy are vulnerable.

Some are “tiny, almost family-like workshops which have know-how but where there are often questions over whether they are sustainable, or regarding succession,” said Olivier Salomon, managing director at consultancy Alix Partners in Paris.

Other brands with a big focus on leather goods like Milan-based Prada are grappling with these issues too as they also consider taking more production in-house, partly to help nurture new generations of skilled workers. (RTRS)