Ermenegildo Zegna

From the Ermenegildo Zegna Corporate website

The Group today

The name of Zegna immediately conjures up two inseparable realities. On one hand, one of the oldest families of entrepreneurs in Italy, its fourth generation currently leading the company, and on the other a leading multinational company in the men’s luxury clothing industry, distributing its products in over 80 countries worldwide and generating over 88% of its sales overseas, with powerful operations in both mature and emerging markets.

Growth of this order has been possible through shrewd diversification of the offering, which now ranges from clothing to accessories, and strategies which have enabled the Ermenegildo Zegna brand to grow successfully throughout the world.

There is far more to Zegna’s success than this though: a strong and consolidated business culture that allows young talent to emerge in the company-wide quest for quality, and a constant focus on customers and people, associated with communication based on creativity and credibility.

Zegna Group’s philosophy is based on three principles: long-term objectives, family ownership to ensure continuity and a sound ethical commitment enshrined in a rigorous corporate governance system. Its organization and the corporate governance underpinning it adopt international best practice in all relevant fields and is supervised by three independent directors of the board (Domenico De Sole, Günther Greiner and Marco Vitale).

All this has been made possible by the long-standing personal commitment of the Zegna family.

Beginnings

As a family business, Ermenegildo Zegna goes back to the second half of the 19th century. Angelo Zegna a watchmaker by trade, decided to open a wool mill. Of his ten children it was the last, Ermenegildo born in 1892, who took over what was to become one of the best known and most dynamic family businesses in Italy.

The Zegna wool mill (Lanificio Zegna) was founded in 1910, in Trivero, in the Alpine foothills near Biella. Ermenegildo Zegna’s objective was to produce top quality textiles for men’s clothing by selecting the finest raw materials and introducing product and process innovations and actively promoting the brand.

What seem obvious success factors today were at the time astonishing intuitions. The quest for quality, in fact, meant having an international vision and buying the most prestigious raw materials directly in the countries of origins, in Australia or South Africa. It also took real appreciation and promotion of technological innovation to buy machinery from their rivals, Great Britain. And lastly, they had to devise a communication strategy capable of giving the Ermenegildo Zegna brand world-wide visibility.

Ermenegildo Zegna's insights proved sound: by the end of the '30s the company was employing over 1,000 people and had brought riches to a village still very poor and isolated.

Ermenegildo’s brilliant business mind was not limited to his particular industrial field. He understood that the quality he sought for his products couldn’t be separated from a positive relationship with the local territory and the community. He understood that the beauty of the natural environment and people’s well being – and not just that of his own employees – were indispensable for a company aspiring to long term success.

In 1932, Trivero already had a meeting hall, a library, a gym , a cinema/theatre and a public swimming pool. In the space of a few years, he built a medical center and a nursery school.

In the meantime, he was dedicating himself to the local environment and landscape, planting thousands of trees and building the “Panoramica Zegna” road a 14 km route linking Trivero and Bielmonte, a tourist resort 1,500 meters above sea level.

This is how Ermenegildo’s youngest son, Angelo Zegna, describes his father’s achievements.

"I see four forces acting throughout my father’s life. First of all, he was born in the right environment to develop his business aptitudes. There were various small firms competing in a small area. Secondly, he was always determined to get the better of his British rivals, by offering creative Italian fabrics with unbeatable quality. The third force was an exceptionally open mind, especially regarding the social welfare of the territory and redistribution of value to workers. Lastly, there was his fundamentally important relationship with nature, his awareness that natural resources are limited and that we must protect them. He was an ecologist long before the term even existed!"

Expansion

At the end of the '30s, then, Ermenegildo Zegna was at the head of a consolidated industrial concern employing a thousand people. In 1938 he’d already started exporting to the United States, where tailors of Italian origin recognized and trusted the Zegna brand.

The founder’s sons, Angelo and Aldo, soon learned the Company’s secrets from their father. They both started working as adolescents while studying in Italy and abroad. In the '60s they gradually took over from their father in the management of Ermenegildo Zegna e Figli.

It was the two of them, in fact, who carried out the vertical integration of the Company, the transition from exclusive production of fabrics to tailoring of high quality suits for men and internationalization of production.

In 1968, they opened a factory in Novara to produce a collection of sleeve-units and trousers that was immediately a great success, mainly due to the reliability of the fabrics. The two brothers soon started to expand abroad, first in Spain and Switzerland and then practically worldwide.

In the meantime, they diversified production to include accessories and sportswear. 1972 saw the launch of the Made to Measure business.

Angelo and Aldo also started bringing their sons and daughters into the Company, thus forming the current generation of managers. Angelo is currently Group chairman. Aldo died in 2000.

Consolidation: towards the future

As Ermenegildo had done with them, so Angelo and Aldo Zegna helped Ermenegildo, Paolo, Anna, Benedetta, Laura and Renata to make their way in the business and prepare to take up managerial positions.

Expansion continued meanwhile and in the ‘80s Zegna extended its control of the industry by opening its first mono brand stores, in Paris in 1980 and in Milan in 1985. These two boutiques were the seed of a capillary distribution system which now spreads across five continents.

At the end of ‘90s, the Company launched a comprehensive strategy of verticalization, diversification and brand extension. The objective was to develop the accessories business and enrich the world of “Zegna Style” by combining excellence, quality and tradition with the sophisticated and cosmopolitan tastes of Zegna customers today.

Diversification also involved a number of important acquisitions. In 1999, the Zegna Group acquired Lanerie Agnona S.p.A. and in 2002 took over Guida, owners of the Longhi brand. In September of the same year, Zegna set up a 50-50 joint venture – ZeFer – with Salvatore Ferragamo Group to develop a global scale footwear and leather goods business.

In 2003, Zegna extended its operations in China by taking 50% of SharMoon, belonging to the Chen family, which makes high quality clothing for the Chinese market. 2003 also saw the launch of the first Zegna fragrance: Essenza di Zegna, distribuited by YSL Beauté. And in 2005, it added another fragrance Z Zegna, it too produced and distributed worldwide by the cosmetics division of Gucci Group. In 2007 has been launched the Zegna Intenso fragrance.

In December 2004, Zegna entered a global agreement with De Rigo Vsion Group to develop, produce and distribute a line of men’s eyewear, optical and sun, to sell under the Ermenegildo Zegna label.

In February 2006, Zegna announced a long-term agreement with stylist Tom Ford. The Tom Ford collection debuted in Spring 2007 and includes a wide range of luxury clothing and accessories.

And lastly, still in 2006, Ermenegildo Zegna Group and Perofil, the renowned makers of men’s underwear, entered a long-term agreement under which Perofil is licensed to design, produce and distribute a line of underwear, including socks and pyjamas, under the Ermenegildo Zegna brand.

One of the objectives of the fourth generation is to ensure continuity for the values and operations that stem from the founder’s philosophy, which are the heritage not only of the family but of the everyone working in the Group.

The mission to keep alive the idea that product quality can only flourish where there is a “culture of beauty”, a culture that must also respect the environment and local communities, is carried forward by the Fondazione Ermenegildo Zegna, set up in 2000.

Headed by Anna Zegna, the Foundation supports projects and research in environmental, social, cultural and scientific fields. It is an international promoter of sustainable development, improvement of the quality of life for individuals and communities, protection of the environment and local cultures, development of mankind and funding of research.

In the mountain country around Biella, where Ermenegildo Zegna built a “panoramic road” linking Trivero with neighboring towns, there is also the Zegna Oasis, created in 1993. This is now a nature park covering over 100 square kilometers, in which various activities are organized to help people appreciate the beauty of the country around Biella and understand the need to care for the environment in general.