173 TANNERIES Leather processing, finishing, and dyeing We talked about it with Giorgio Portolano, owner of this new adventure that began seven years ago and which mainly produces lambskins and fine nappa leather for gloves, but also for footwear, leather goods, and apparel. In your opinion, what is the company’s strength? In a restricted and highly saturated market such as ours, the real difference today is the reliability in offering a product that is always dependable in its quality along with the service offered to the clients, who must feel pampered and safe from unforeseen events that have become the norm in our world. This is achieved by constant monitoring of production, entrusted to my expert selectors who always manage to get the best out of each skin, and by a sincere, daily relationship with every client who must learn to trust me as a man before trusting the entrepreneur in me. How much do research and fashion trends count in your work? Our leading product is full-grain nappa, an article that - however classic - never goes out of fashion. Our roots are firmly fixed in the world of Neapolitan glove making, unique in the world for its naturalness, softness, and uniformity of colour. So, our challenge has been to adapt these characteristics to the world of footwear and apparel, which has required raising the bar in terms of quality, a step that can only be achieved with great commitment, sacrifice, and professionalism. It is therefore essential for us to keep abreast of market trends, since, as we are essentially a single-product company, our colour sample cards are constantly and very rapidly updated: we are able to offer our clients all our creativity and intuition in anticipating trends. How important is sustainability to you? It is the basis of our company philosophy. A couple of years ago we started a certification process in cooperation with ICEC and obtained the ISO 14001 Environmental Management certification, the TS410 Traceability certification, the TS422 Emergency Management certification, and finally the Corporate Sustainability certification, which certifies our effort and determination. Among the upcoming projects in this regard is the new Zero CO2 certification to offset the company’s carbon footprint through reforestation, leading to zero emissions over time. A young company projected towards the future, but with solid foundations in a century-old family tradition
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