Gucci today opened “ArtLab”, the new center of excellence for leather goods and footwear. On the former Matec factory in Scandicci, a 37.000 sqm covered factory was born, which employs 800 people in research and development for materials, metal accessories and packaging, prototyping, laboratories, shoe shapes and heels, and pre-industrialization.
For the first time in the luxury sector, an unique laboratory aims to combine both chain of bags and shoes, in order to innovate processes and products. “An exemplary project for the international Kering group,” said Mr. Pinault, CEO of the French luxury Kering group that controls Gucci, “A unique project in the world, the largest industrial investment in Gucci’s history,” said CEO Marco Bizzarri without revealing the size of the investment that, according to sources close to the company, amounts to 100 million euros.
The plant “was built in less than two years: the bureaucracy and slowness of the public administration do not live here,” added Bizzarri in front of the mayor of Scandicci, Sandro Fallani, the metropolitan mayor Dario Nardella and representatives of the Region of Tuscany.
Source Toscana 24, Il Sole 24 Ore
