Genovese Slam for sale

The sportswear company Slam is up for sale and about to be sold. The rumour leaked during the Genoa International Boat Show and was confirmed by sources close to the company's top management. 'We are negotiating the sale,' they say, 'which is normal, because it has been four years since the purchase. There is no official confirmation as to who is the buyer who seems closest to signing. "There is more than one at the door," the sources claim. But market rumours identify the party that would be ready to buy in the Msc group, which is headed by shipowner, and publisher of the Secolo XIX, Gianluigi Aponte.

The story of the historic Genoese company, which dressed Team New Zealand, winner of the race, in the last America's Cup, has gone on, from 1979 (the year of its foundation) to the present day, between ups and downs. And, after a few years of crisis, which had led it, in 2019, to count losses of 6.9 million euros, in August 2021 it found new momentum. Then, in fact, Vam Investments, a private equity holding company controlled by CEO Marco Piana, entered the capital of the company, which had a hundred or so employees.

Vam absorbed Slam's assets in a business acquisition, which was finalised through the newco Slam.com, a vehicle then capitalised with EUR 10 million. The stated goal was to bring sales back to 40 million, i.e. to what they were in 2010, as they had fallen to 20 million in 2019 (with a further negative peak of 12 in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic). Vam had bought the company from Luigi Negri's Finsea of Genoa, which, at the time, remained in the shareholding structure as a partner, with a share that was not disclosed.

Enrico Chieffi, a former Olympian, world sailing champion in the Star and 470 classes as well as tactician of the Moro di Venezia in the America's Cup in '92 (he won the Louis Vuitton Cup), and later manager at Nautor Swan with Leonardo Ferragamo, who still sits at the helm of the company today, has been called in to lead Slam's new course. He devised a strategic plan to resurrect Slam as a company highly specialised in technical sailing clothing.

A largely successful project, since, in addition to dressing the America's Cup winning team, Slam provided clothing for five sailors participating in the Vendée Globe 2024 (non-stop, solo round-the-world race, ndr), one of whom, Sébastien Simon, came third. Less brilliant, perhaps, although definitely growing, are the economic results. In 2022, in fact, the company prefigured (in Sole 24 Ore) a closure of the annual accounts with 12 million in revenue and the objective of reaching 40 million in 2026. Things turned out differently: in 2024 alone, in fact, the company's turnover came to 9 million, with a forecast of closing 2025 at 12 million. Perhaps this also prompted Vam to take a step back (given that the project outlined by the fund was for five years but with a medium to long term perspective, it was said) and put the company on the market.