CASTELLO DI BRIANZA, Italy — Fumagalli is one of the last of a dying breed of Italian weavers owned by three brothers; Giuseppe, Adelio and Marino and still hard working after 50 years of operation in its second generation of the same family ownership.

Fumagalli serves export markets including Germany, about 40 percent of its business and still booming. Elena Fumagalli is the export manager but she is not related to the brothers. “Fumagalli is a very common name near Lecco,” she said. Denys Annable, Italian agent with Elena Fumagalli, export manager for Fumagalli who speaks Italian, English and German and Adelio Fumagalli, one of three brothers who owns Fumagalli in Castello di Brianza, Italy. This is the first Heimtextil Frankfurt exhibition for this 50 year old mill. “Germany is booming for us,” Adelio said.

Denys Annable, the agent for this mill feels that Fumagalli like so many other Italian mills has a future because in fifteen years, China will have the same costs as any Italian mill,” he said. “At that point, the mill with the best design will win and that’s the strength of the Italian weaver like Fumagalli,” he said.

This mill makes extremely competitive upholstery plains in the four Euros to 14 Euro price point working with five or six natural fibers including wool, linen, cotton, viscose. The mill turns out 5,000 meters a day Adelio said, with 18 looms; ten double wide and eight single widths, with only 19 employees. Fumagalli was able to coast through life without participating in many trade shows “until this year when it became apparent that a greater marketing effort was required to keep the looms busy,” said Adelio during the Heimtextil Fair in Frankfurt.

This year was Fumagalli’s first Heimtextil in 50 years. The company had an odd shaped wedge of a stand it got at the last minute. “The problem is getting money in a timely fashion from our customers; in Italy, there is fashion but not when it comes to paying on time,” Adelio laughed. He has four children and says he has to be an ‘optimist’ to support his family today. “If you are capable and have quality and enthusiasm, you can survive in this business,” Adelio reasoned. Fumagalli will show its collection at the Cernobbio Shed outside the Proposte Fairgrounds in May.  F&FI