FLORENCE — Italian yarn manufacturers presented new products to a more upbeat mood at the latest edition of Pitti Filati last week.
The yarn fair, which ended its three-day run July 8 at the Fortezza Da Basso, showcased yarn collections for fall-winter 2006-2007.
Most executives agreed they had overcome the worst of the export crisis that resulted from the strength of the euro against the dollar in the last six months, even though sales will take a while to recover.
“The crisis is finished and the market is finding its new ground, though it’s clear we won’t see years like 2001 again soon,” said Massimiliano Zegna Baruffa, chief executive officer of Zegna Baruffa.
The company managed to achieve stable results for the first half of 2005, Baruffa said.
Grignasco Group, which also managed to stay on plan with sales in the first half, is slowly finding its way out of the latest crisis.
“Things are getting a bit easier with the euro dropping, but it’s still a very complicated market,” said Paolo Corrias, marketing director of Grignasco Group.
On Monday, one euro was worth $1.21. In January, one euro was worth $1.35.
Luigi Botto returned to the fair this season after a hiatus spent dealing with its own financial restructuring.
“Business is better. We are out of the financial crisis and focusing on new collections, which have been repositioned at a higher level,” said Arianna Leone, ceo of Luigi Botto. “Fortunately, at the same time, the dollar is repositioning itself higher, too.”
Leone said the company’s basic yarn product was either eliminated or an upgraded; medium-high-quality yarn was used, so as not to compete with Chinese mills.
“If you can find it in China, it doesn’t make sense that we produce it,” said Leone.
Instead, Luigi Botto developed its patented XT-Four yarn, this time with cashmere and wool combined with a new, higher performance elastic called XLA. Leone said luxury fibers spun in the XT-Four way retained their quality, with less pilling, because the process places less stress on the fiber. The company also showed a tonal mélange color card of XT yarn achieved by overdyeing. The procedure produces thousands of color gradients and can be done in quantities as low as 10 kilos, added Leone.
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“American clients love this because they can practically have their own exclusive color and can buy the quantity they want,” said Leone.
Another yarn manufacturer gearing its dyeing service to customers is Iafil. The 100-year-old company opened a dyeing plant last September in Hong Kong to enable faster delivery to its Far East market.
Stefano Salvaneschi, president of Iafil, said the company could deliver dyed cotton yarn from its Hong Kong plant within a week. Iafil & Co. Hong Kong has the capacity to dye 300,000 kilos of cotton yarn and Salvaneschi said he hoped the plant would soon account for more than a quarter of yarn sales, which hit 20 million euros, or $24.9 million, in 2004.
“It’s not just about the product; we had to learn how to manage it better and follow the client. It’s the only solution to rise above the current situation,” said Salvaneschi.
While most Italian yarn manufacturers struggle to maintain their sales at current levels, cashmere yarn producers are riding the crest of a record year.
Cariaggi, a specialist in the yarn, is expecting sales to rise this year by 11 percent to 42 million euros, or $50.1 million at current exchange rates. The company presented metal/cashmere mixes, ultra luxurious cashmere piles and smoked cashmere mélanges achieved by dyeing the fiber before the spinning process in tones of gray, oatmeal and sky blue.
“We are having a good moment, but to get here, we invested in the product and believed in it. We wanted to distinguish ourselves on the market and we can with products like these,” said Cristiana Cariaggi, ceo of the company.
Loro Piana is also enjoying double-digit growth. The company expects a 30 percent rise in yarn sales by the end of year.
Yarn division manager Luciano Bandi said, “The American market for us is stronger than ever. They are buying a lot of yarn.”
Suzanne Pond, director of design for Massachusetts-based Dawson-Forté Cashmere, said, “Cashmere is a hot commodity right now in the U.S.”
Loro Piana uncharacteristically presented a number of fancy cashmere yarns, including foil-laminated jersey cashmere in bronze, red and silver black. Zegna Baruffa followed the new trend to puffy, clean, featherweight yarn in Saxmere — a blend of Saxon wool and cashmere in shades of petrol, violet and gray. Iafil also applied foil to mixes of merino wool and alpaca in tones of black, and printed mélange color onto pure alpaca yarns in gray, beige and cream.
“I like the moody black story some companies have shown, but overall, I like the cashmere and luxury blends,” said Richard Metzger, design director of GM Design Group in New York.