Chieri, Italy – The fire that ravaged the mill Piovano on the night of February 18 may have stopped business for the company, but not forever, said the Piovano family. "We are firmly determined not to let die the name 'Piovano,'" said Guido and Leandro Piovano in a letter to the trade dated February 26, 2002. "With deep sorrow we are compelled to suspend our business until all insurance proceedings will be over."

The mill, which was purchased by the Piovano family in 1948, wove unique and highly stylized decorative fabrics as well as mid-range jacquards and toiles on its 54 looms, all of which were lost in the fire.
Three-quarters of the 8,000 square meters of fabric produced annually by the mill were exported. The fire has left many decorative jobbers in the U.S. as well as distributers in Lebanon , Morocco and all over Europe scrambling to find other manufacturers to replicate the Piovano qualities until such time as the mill can be rebuilt.

Piovano expects to rebuild the factory within a year and a half if all goes well with insurance proceedings and if the company can procure financial help from other (government) sources. But "no one knows," admitted export manager Silvia Chiavario. "We don't want to upset our customers, so we are not asking them to wait. They are free to select other suppliers. We can only hope they will be back."