Gianni Chiarini celebrates 25 years with revenues of 34.2 million (+9%) and new hires

2024 was a complicated year for the Italian leather goods industry, which saw production fall by around 20% (Assopellettieri estimates) and turnover drop by over 8%, from 13.1 billion to around 12 billion. Even worse was the situation in Tuscany, the capital of high-end bags, where estimates speak of a drop in production of close to 30%.

Despite this, there are those who have closed a satisfying year and are looking to the future with confidence. This is the case of the Gianni Chiarini brand, which to underline its roots incorporated the word "Firenze"' in its logo and is now celebrating 25 years of existence with a growing budget and a limited edition capsule of the most representative bags in its history. The capsule will be on sale from April only online in two materials, leather or straw.

GC Group spa, which since 2017 has been 70% owned by Alessandro Benetton's 21 Invest fund, closed 2024 with a turnover that rose to €34.2 million (+9%), more than 60% of which was generated abroad, and a gross operating margin (ebitda) of 10%. Most of the sales (80%) come from the wholesale channel, while retail is worth 13% and direct ecommerce 7%. 'The product enhancement strategy paid off,' explains CEO Ezio Raccichini, 'and the development in particular in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The price has helped us because we are positioned in the affordable luxury bracket, which ranges from 250 to 400 euro per person'. 2025 also got off to a good start: "The autumn-winter sales campaign closed with +12%," adds the CEO. It is a trend that goes against the cold winds that continue to blow in the sector, such as to push us to increase the workforce (currently 65 people): "The redundancy fund? Not only have we not done so, but right now we are hiring new people, from sales to prototyping'. The goal for this year is to confirm the 2024 numbers.

Coordinating the style remains the founder Gianni Chiarini, 60 years old, president of the company (of which he retains 30%), who began the business by continuing his father's work as a wholesaler of bags, and then in 2000 decided to create his own brand, still in Florence. "My DNA is to make functional bags, with a clean design and without too many logos," Chiarini emphasises, explaining that the decision to sell the majority of the company is linked above all to the generational transition, since the two daughters have decided to work in other fields. Bag production takes place in external workshops, in Italy and abroad, while the 'light' functions and modelling are concentrated in-house.

Also on the occasion of the brand's 25th anniversary, Gianni Chiarini renovated the Florentine shop in Via della Vigna Nuova, with a new concept linked to the city of origin that exalts cocciopesto, a building material used in Tuscany to cover floors and walls, made up of fragments of tiles or bricks, with a warm and enveloping colour.