According to Italian press reports, the Hugo Boss fashion group wants to close its own development site in Scandicci near Florence. This is where the product development of the leather goods and women’s shoe collections took place. The closure will affect 21 people. The unions have called for protests and are asking Hugo Boss to reconsider this step.
Hugo Boss is taking this step to withdraw entirely from Italy and to relocate production to Portugal and China, the Italian press quotes employees concerned as saying. In addition, Hugo Boss customers are no longer interested in “Made in Italy”, is another statement that Hugo Boss allegedly made to the Italian subsidiary.
When FashionUnited asked Hugo Boss, the situation was different. Although the Scandicci location was actually closed, the processes there were integrated into the company’s own Italian locations in Morrovalle and Coldrerio.
“Hugo Boss never made the statement that the market or consumers were no longer interested in the quality feature “Made in Italy”. This is not the company’s view. Hugo Boss will of course remain present with the production site in Morrovalle with over 100 employees in Italy, as well as with the Hugo Boss Ticino SA branch in the neighboring Swiss region with around 400 employees,” said the company in a recent statement to FashionUnited.
Hugo Boss is working on a plan for the affected employees
Hugo Boss is currently working on a plan for the 21 employees affected. “To this end, the company is in close contact with the employees and the responsible trade unions in order to examine in detail all possible options for the employees concerned. These talks are currently ongoing. We therefore ask for your understanding that we are currently unable to comment further or make any further statements about possible results of the talks as long as they are still ongoing,” Hugo Boss continued.
The closure is related to a comprehensive realignment of the supply chain at Hugo Boss. “In this context and after a thorough internal analysis, the company decided to reorganize its processes and procedures in the area of shoes and accessories. This ultimately led to the decision to close the Scandicci development site,” the company said.