Safilo, agreement with Thelios on Longarone. Race against time to save the job
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A definitive agreement would be very close to giving a future to the Safilo plant in Longarone, in the heart of the Belluno eyewear district, and to the 458 people who work there. The small (big) twist – at least for those who followed the negotiations as an observer – arrived two days ago with a seven-line seven press release from Safilo, announcing its involvement in the negotiations for the sale of the entrepreneur’s plant Carlo Fulchir, known in the district with his company iVision Group, but not as well known outside the sector.
The eyewear supply chain
The medium and high-end Made in Italy eyewear supply chain is in fact entirely concentrated in the Belluno area and includes the big names in the sector (Luxottica, Marcolin and De Rigo, as well as Safilo, of course) and hundreds of SMEs working in the various rings of the chain and which are often suppliers of the big players, just like iVision.
Three-way negotiation
Sources within Safilo yesterday confirmed to Il Sole 24 Ore that the two-way negotiation has turned into a three-way negotiation: alongside the agreements being finalized with Thelios, the Lvmh group company based in the Belluno area, they are in the final stage those with Fulchir. The reason for the new mosaic is easy to tell, Safilo explains: «The Longarone plant was born in the 1950s and since then it has been enlarged and transformed several times: today it is in fact divided in two, but only by a road. In the main part, the one that interests Thelios, processes such as galvanic and varnishing are carried out, in the other, that interests Carlo Fulchir, the finishing takes place above all». iVision would hire 208 workers, while Thelios the other 250.
The time factor
The time factor is becoming crucial: the negotiations for the sale of Longarone began at the end of January, when, communicating the 2022 results, the Safilo board of directors «reaffirmed the importance of the production sites of Santa Maria di Sala and Bergamo and of the logistics center in Padua», but at the same time gave a «mandate to the management to explore alternative solutions for the Longarone plant».
Safeguarding employment
Thelios, which owns many leading brands of Lvmh, the largest luxury group in the world, and Fulchir have already agreed on the terms of the agreement, which would allow the 458 people who work at Longarone “to keep their jobs, not to move to other establishments and to continue to carry out tasks similar or the same as those they have had up to now”. There is a lack of formal consent from the unions and institutions, all involved in the negotiations of the last six months and who took part in a meeting on the Veneto Region on Wednesday. «Considering that in August in Italy everything slows down or even stops, at Safilo we hope that a joint signature will soon be reached – the company further explains -. Both Thelios and Fulchir are in a phase of strong expansion of their respective businesses, all concentrated in the high-end eyewear segment, for which demand is very strong. If we don’t guarantee the Longarone solution quickly, they could explore other avenues and the first to lose out would be the workers».
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