MILAN — Seven years after inaugurating a new factory in Arquata del Tronto, in Italy’s Marche region, Tod’s SpA chairman and chief executive officer Diego Della Valle and his brother Andrea Della Valle, vice chairman, on Friday were bestowed with honorary citizenship of the small town.
The honor recognized the entrepreneurs’ social commitment for reacting swiftly in 2016 in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in August that year, which killed almost 300 people in central Italy, including 51 in Arquata del Tronto, a small town located 68 miles away from Tod’s headquarters in Casette d’Ete. In just 11 months after the deadly natural disaster, the Della Valles succeeded in erecting the factory.
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Speaking at the group’s Milan headquarters Thursday, on the eve of the ceremony, Diego Della Valle recalled visiting the area soon after the earthquake and offering support to the local mayor.
“It took me 24 hours to think about it and then I called him. A little miracle happened in 11 months,” he said.
The 21,600-square-foot manufacturing plant, which produces Tod’s footwear, currently employs 80 people, with plans to up that to 200 workers when the luxury company builds and inaugurates a second factory in the area. This would take two to three years, Della Valle said.
“When the public and private sectors want to do something together, and if that’s about common good, things can happen very quickly,” the entrepreneur offered. “I like to think and tell my colleagues who already do a lot of things that the bugbear that with public [institutions] one can hardly do anything is not true,” he said.
The investment in Arquata del Tronto, made in solidarity with the local community, was also instrumental in preserving the group’s Made in Italy production and craftsmanship, a source of pride for Della Valle.
On Thursday the entrepreneur remembered that the group has its own training school, called “Bottega dei Mestieri,” where young apprentices work hand-in-hand with older and experienced master artisans for a mutual exchange of competencies and approaches.
In the Marche region the group has recently inked a deal with the ITS professional school in Fermo, Italy, to support a two-year artisanship course, aimed at tackling the handover of skills between generations, a longstanding issue in Italy’s fashion and luxury supply chain.
Della Valle said he hopes that this kind of partnership can be scaled up with the support of the Italian government and the Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, with whom he has already engaged in preliminary conversations.