FENDI lays the foundation stone of FENDI Factory, its new pole of excellence located in the heart of the Tuscan countryside in Bagno a Ripoli, close to Florence, highlighting the Maison’s continuous commitment towards environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

To mark the importance of this milestone for the Roman luxury house, Serge Brunschwig, Chairman and CEO, planted a tree on the construction site: a Turkey oak, a symbol across different cultures of virtus, dignity and courage. In particular, the Turkey oak tree plays a key role in the Fendi Factory project, celebrating the local biodiversity of the area.

Covering a land surface of 8 hectares, FENDI Factory, which has been designed by Milan-based architecture firm Piuarch, will occupy a 13,000-square-meter area formerly housing the Fornace Brunelleschi kiln. FENDI kicked off the works in the area in August 2018 to clear and prepare the construction site.

Italy is synonymous with tradition, history, beauty and above all excellence. We embrace the opportunity to invest in the Made in Italy and to sublimate the core values of craftsmanship, artisanal savoir-faire and the power of handcrafting. Expertise and experimentation are all elements that support our marketing and company culture and at FENDI we believe that keeping and transmitting this level of tradition is fundamental for the coming generations. We are very proud of our roots, of this new chapter in Bagno a Ripoli, offering our teams a sustainable and caring working environment, “states Serge Brunschwig, FENDI Chairman and CEO.

Blurring the lines between indoor and outdoor spaces, FENDI Factory will feature a series of buildings connected with squares and stairs that, located at different levels, will be harmoniously integrated into the natural conformation of the Tuscan hillside. With plenty of sunlight filtering through the large glass walls, the functional and efficient manufacturing plant will offer a healthy workplace, where artisans will be able to express their skills and creativity at their best. Designed to guarantee unparalleled efficiency, FENDI’s new plant, including a range of manufacturing areas, offices and warehouses, will feature rational spaces enabling an easy circulation of people and goods.

The start of the works of the new FENDI Factory production facility in Bagno a Ripoli witnesses the importance of the development agreements promoted by the MiSE, which aims at supporting our companies in the process of technological transformation, while protecting both the skills of our workers and the reconversion of existing plants in the territories in which they are located”, states the Minister of Economic Development, Stefano Patuanelli. “Encouraging investments in training, research and development is in fact one of the pillars – adds Patuanelli – of the strategy that the MiSE is carrying out, also through the 4.0 Transition plan. Historic fashion brands like FENDI represent Italian excellence in the world. The contribution of this sector to economic growth and to the presence of Italy in international markets is strategic, just as it is fundamental to support the authenticity and craftsmanship of their productions. The challenge for our productive fabric is to combine Made in Italy with innovation, technology with digitalization, skilfully merging the old and the new know-how, ancient manual skills and 4.0 training, always with an attentive eye to environmental sustainability”, concludes the Minister.

Our bond with FENDI is strong and rooted and we are proud to have co-financed the national program that today consolidates a historic brand, relaunches growth prospects and gives us the reconversion of an historical industrial site like the former Fornace Brunelleschi," declares Eugenio Giani, President of the Toscana region. “We are proud –of the development agreement that unblocked the Mise resources, focused on leather goods and on the use of innovative technologies, and that opens a season of new employment with the prospect of doubling jobs.”

FENDI’s new site represents a news of absolute impact for the Metropolitan City of Florence and beyond, because it combines the recovery of the former Fornace Brunelleschi and the spaces of the area with technological and employment development, doubling, as a matter of fact, the number of employees. It is a great project that, on the other hand, finds support and further increase in expectation precisely because it can pride of operating in the ‘Greater Florance’”, says Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence.

The start of the construction works of the new FENDI facility at Capannuccia is, today, a wave of hope for the future in such a complex moment,” asserts Francesco Casini, Mayor of Bagno a Ripoli. “It’s a new demonstration of how Bagno a Ripoli is a territory of opportunities for those who want to realize quality investments and of how in Florence and Tuscany one can do, and do well, with rapid and definite times, a virtuous collaboration between private and public sectors. Once again, with this intervention, the road to sustainable development is taken, allowing one of the leading groups in the fashion industry to have a new production plant immersed in the beauty of Chianti, looking to Florence, with a remarkable and very important impact on the economy and employment of the entire Tuscan and Florentine territory. And all of this without consuming a new soil, yet recovering an abandoned, degraded and squatted industrial site, that for a long time has represented an environmental emergency, thus transforming a critical problem into an extraordinary opportunity.”

In keeping with the Roman luxury house’s continuous commitment towards sustainability, FENDI Factory has complied so as to aiming at the prestigious LEED Platinum certification. Both the perimeter and interior walls will be made of glass, enabling the sunlight to filter and offering employees serene views of the Tuscan countryside and of the impeccably designed courtyards presenting local varieties of plants and flowers.

Enabling the new FENDI site to blend in with the environment, the external walls of the different building will match glass with a natural mix of soil and concrete in a signature earthy tone reflecting the color shades of the Tuscan hillside and celebrating the ancient tradition of the site.

In addition, FENDI has created a public park in the same area, opposite the kindergarten, featuring playgrounds, wide benches and following the same approach of biodiversity of the FENDI Factory landscape, with native plant species and some areas dedicated to the growth of plants to have as natural an effect as possible.

FENDI Factory is set to inaugurate in 2022.