An indiscretion relaunched by Dagospia was enough to give some liveliness to the sleepy Augustan political news, lost in the controversy over refugees among the radical chic of Capalbio and the grueling debate in the Democratic Party on the constitutional referendum. It was enough for Roberto D’Agostino ‘s online newspaper to spread the news of Beppe Grillo spaparanzato for Ferragosto on a 42-meter yacht moored in front of Porto Cervo, to trigger yet another invective against the comedian who makes the life of a millionaire but he preaches Franciscanism with his 5 Star Movement. All thanks to the invitation made by Enrico De Marco, entrepreneur patron of Coronet, to his friend Beppe, hosted on the yacht together with his wife Parvin and about fifty other guests including the very Renzianissimo mayor of Bergamo Giorgio Gori , the right arm of Marina Berlusconi as well as CEO of Mondadori Ernesto Mauri (who is also a “friend of Berlusconi” as Repubblica is keen to remember) and the patron of Confapri Arturo Artom , already close to Gianroberto Casaleggio . THE EPIC OF THE KING OF FAUX LEATHER
Seventy-five years from Trezzano sul Naviglio, Enrico De Marco founded Coronet in 1967. This is how Sole24Ore described him a few years ago: “Once upon a time there was an exuberant young man who, in the fabulous years of the economic boom, founded a company that grew so much that that young man who had grown up became the sixth Italian taxpayer. But one day he got tired of working so hard and he sold her. After some time, the company begins to go bad and bad. And the ex-young man, heartbroken to see his kingdom go down, if I buy it back “. Indeed, the story of this captain of Italian industry is quite unique. From the small laboratory of 300 square meters in the Milanese hinterland, where he began producing the first synthetic leathers for footwear, to the boom of his company with a turnover of 120 billion old lire,Jody Vender through the Sopaf finance company for almost 80 million euros. Then the collapse in turnover with the anticipation of the international crisis, mitigated only by that foresight of De Marco who had started in time to relocate production to the Chinese province of Guandong. In 2008, the king of the imitation leather takes back his creature which is now close to liquidation, closes two plants in Italy, halves the losses and since 2011 is back to full speed. THE RELAUNCH STRATEGY
There are four assets along which De Marco has decided to intervene to reverse the negative trend that had hit his company. In the first place the reorganization of the Italian factories, halved from the 4 that were to 2 with the closures of Corsico and the second of Velletri. Then the intuition of going to produce in China, so as to keep the breath on the neck of the new competitors who had brought it close to collapse. Linked to the decision to relocate part of the production to save the company, there is also that of diversifying the core business: no longer just synthetic leathers for footwear, but also products for fashion clothing and technical and sports clothing. All in imitation leather. Finally, the research and development carried out by the Velletri plant.FROM CHINA TO VIETNAM
Today Coronet Spa, led by the president Umberto De Marco (son of Enrico) has its organizational and management headquarters in Milan and 4 production units. Two of these are in Italy, in Cisterna di Latina (which produces a large part of the main semi-finished product of synthetic leather produced in China) and in Velletri, the heart of research and development. Then there is the Huizhou plant, in Guandong, and the last one opened in Ben Tre, Vietnam, for a total of over 300 employees.
And the investment in the South-East Asian country was the latest innovation in the De Marco house, which includes clients such as Louis Vuitton, Tod’s, Moncler and Armani. With an investment of 20 million dollars announced several years earlier, in 2015 De Marco inaugurated the 15 thousand square meter plant 100 kilometers from the Vietnamese capital Ho Chi Min, in an area that enjoys tax exemption for ten years. As announced by Coronet itself, a further expansion of this production unit is planned at the end of 2016. Why Vietnam
Because it is among the top five footwear manufacturers, with an export quantified at over 7.2 billion dollars in 2013. And because, like in China, De Marco’s strategy was to go and track down its competitors in their own home, thus trying to open up new markets to save the heart of the company that remained in Italy. “But internationalization has not changed Coronet’s Italian matrix – wrote Panorama in 2015 -. In addition to the research that is always carried out in the Velletri (Rome) plant, even 90% of the main semi-finished synthetic leather produced in China and Vietnam continues to be made by Coronet Italia, a way to maintain constant the quality of the finished and unaltered product. the appeal of made in Italy but at lower costs “.
