Golden Lady

The Origin

Golden Lady Company SpA is an Italian company specialized in the production of socks and hosiery.

Born in 1967 in Castiglione delle Stiviere. It grows through the acquisition of domestic and foreign brands of hosiery and underwear, including Omsa, Sisi, Filodoro, Philippe Matignon, and the American brands No-Nonsense and Hue.

Development

 In 1967 was born in Castiglione delle Stiviere (MN) the Golden Lady Sas Hosiery founded by brothers Arnaldo and Nerino Grassi, who leave the milling business of the family to become entrepreneurs in the women’s hosiery sector, opening the doors of the German market. The group then continued in the 1980s and the following decade, also through the purchase of the SiSi company.

The group targets the medium-high segment of the sector with the acquisition in the early nineties of the Italian company Omsa, while with Kaiser-Roth Corporation, the American market leader with the brands No-Nonsense and Hue, it enters the US sector.

With the purchase of Filodoro SpA (2003), the group incorporates both the production facilities and the related brands Filodoro, NY legs and the top of the range Philippe Matignon.The Group’s strategy combines a defined Italian style and continuous product diversification, with the opening of new markets through the acquisition of the best national and international brands of hosiery including Philippe Matignon, Filodoro, SiSi and Omsa, as well as the American brands No-Nonsense and Hue.

Golden Lady Company is the market leader in Italy with a share of 35% and a key player in all major European markets including France, Germany, Spain and England, through its subsidiaries and sales agencies. A key position is held in Russia and in Eastern Europe (especially Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Slovakia) thanks to a local distribution network that has established the Group’s products as symbols of Italian elegance. Also in the US market, the Golden Lady Company has been able to achieve a dominant role.

Social Responsibility

Golden Lady Company considers environmental and social sustainability an essential opportunity and challenge for today’s production system. The sustainability and protection of safety in the workplace are experienced by the Group not only as a commitment, but as a strategic business element to be used in the daily management of its activities.

The will of Golden Lady Company to promote health, safety and sustainability is expressed in a policy of continuous improvement that affects all levels of the company. The commitment from the environmental point of view is testified not only by the certainty that the group’s production activities do not represent a risk for the environment, but also by the assumption of a proactive protection attitude, confirmed by the application of an important system environmental management.
The Group undertakes to continuously reduce its impact on the environment, to plan and implement practices and methods that, in addition to meeting all legal obligations, tend to improve environmental efficiency.

This is why it adopts an Environmental Management System (EMS), compliant with the requirements of the international standard UNI EN ISO 14001, for all activities, products and services with direct and / or indirect impact on environmental performance, made at its Basciano production site, in Abruzzo.

Finance

The Group closed 2016 with a turnover of around 200 million euros with a drop from the previous year which closed at around 280 million euros.

Speaking of women ‘s hosiery industry of Italy, the turnover of the Italian industry marks a stabilization in 2016 (828 million euros, -0.2% compared to 2015, with a market share of total exports of 10.2%), a sort of ceasefire after sharp falls – between 4% and 6% recorded from 2012 to 2015 – but it remains one of the pillars of the Italian trade balance: 326 million euro is the value of exports in 2016 (economic data of hosiery). In the tights sector alone, Italy occupies a position of absolute importance: 2 billion dollars is the value of world exports, with a national share of 23.4% of the total, equivalent to the Chinese one.

Current Situation

Golden Lady today boasts of 13 production sites located in Italy, United States and Serbia, with an overall production of 400 million tights per year, distributed in 70 countries worldwide. The moving of its production to especially Serbia created an unwanted controversy for the company.

The group is characterized by a strong industrial connotation, determined by the development of a completely verticalized production structure that goes from the production of yarns to the packaging of the finished product. The group turned, following a contraction in consumption, to the Eastern European market and Russia. At the same time, the production chain was completed with the activation of two spinning plants and the introduction of more technologically advanced systems. In 2012 the group then sold the Faenza plant to the ATL Group for the reindustrialisation of the production area with the reabsorption of labour.

Golden Lady employs 7,000 workers, of which 2,900 are based in Italy.

Nerino Grassi is the Chairman of the Group and the headquarters are located in Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mantova), Italy.