Reshoring works for Italian leathergoods company

02/12/2014
The CEO of leathergoods brand Piquadro has explained that high transport costs and import duties are among reasons for moving some manufacturing back to Italy from China.

Marco Palmieri told Reuters that while the wages are still five times higher in Italy, they were 16 times higher in 2008, and executives earn around the same amount in both countries. There is also some kudos to be gained from making products in Italy, he said.

"Chinese factories are designed to handle large volumes: we increasingly need smaller volumes of a much larger variety of products,” he said. “And we're also under pressure to reduce the time-to-market of our products.”