Nice Footwear takes over Emmepiere upper factory integrates production

Fifth acquisition in a few years for Nice Footwaear, the Padua-based footwear company founded in 2016 by entrepreneur Bruno Conterno and controlled since 2021 by private equity fund Palladio Holding. The group, which also includes the companies Favaro Manifattura, Emmegi Corrado Maretto and Dyva, now includes Emmepier, a manufacturing company based in Vigonza and specialised in the production of uppers for the high-end segment.

This strengthens the project to create in Veneto, and in particular on the Riviera del Brenta, a footwear manufacturing pole to serve the major luxury brands, particularly Italian and French, thus preserving and maintaining on the territory the knowledge, skills and traditions of a district of excellence recognised throughout the world. A project pursued by Conterno since the beginning of his business in 2016, passed through a short-lived stock market listing and then strengthened with the entry into the capital of the Palladio Fund, a patient fund, "which looks at the goodness of the business and not the firm number," explains the entrepreneur. We are concentrating more on the industrial value of our group, rather than on the figure itself, and on the investments necessary to realise our long-term project, which will contribute to maintaining the leadership we have always had in this sector in Italy, and in particular on the Riviera del Brenta, as well as generating wealth and employment'. In this sense, Conterno emphasises the increase in the group's workforce, from around 80 in 2023 to the current 250, with the aim of reaching 350 employees in 2026.

The acquisition of tomaificio Emmepier marks a strategic step in the realisation of the project, which envisages the vertical integration of production processes: 'We specialise in footwear, but the supply chain also includes other activities, sub-processing, which are of interest to us in order to protect our production. The path we are taking serves to improve and make our supply chain more solid and efficient, but it is also an important message for the territory and for our customers, because in us they will find a partner that not only makes production, but also undertakes to govern the processes upstream of that production,' explains the CEO.

To do all this, resources are needed to integrate the stages of the process and overcome the traditional fragmentation of the sector. Hence the decisive role of the Palladio Fund: "Today, the Group is growing through synergic operations such as this one, confirming itself as an aggregator of manufacturing excellence in the region and in Italy, able to compete globally in contract manufacturing for luxury brands, thanks to the integration of skills and investments in innovation, to guarantee quality products and certified control of the production chain," said Nicola Iorio and Nadia Buttignol, managing partner and partner of Palladio Holding.

Consolidated turnover as at 30 April 2024 was close to EUR 44.8 million and Nice Footwear aims to close the next financial year with an aggregate turnover of EUR 100 million, also considering the acquisitions of Dyva and Corrado Maretto last October. The company always aims to acquire healthy companies where the generational transition is underway and to maintain the presence of the current management with the new generations, also to preserve their identity and core business.