Companies and Cooperatives

Workers buyout, stories of Italian workers saving the factory

Here are three stories of successful rescue: Nuovi Profumi in Roncopascolo (Parma), Cartiera Pirinoli in Cuneo and Wbo Italcables in Caivano. The role of Banca Etica

by Niccolò Gramigni

17 November 2025

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The phenomenon of the workers buyout, the action of saving the company or a part of it by employees taking over ownership, is now an increasingly widespread practice. And in Italy there are several successful and hopeful stories.

The New Perfumes of Roncopascolo (Parma)

Nuovi Profumi in Roncopascolo (Parma) is an example of a workers buyout, born from the stubbornness of around 30 former employees of the Morris Profumi company, which went into liquidation in 2020. After many complex years, the company now boasts 52 employees, 45 of whom are partners, and has a turnover of approximately EUR 8 million: of the 52 employees, 85% are women.

The general manager and president of the cooperative is Alessandro Torsiglieri, the vice-president is Claudia Florio.

Torsiglieri himself recounts how things went: 'In 2020, we partners worked for Morris perfumes, a full-service perfumery management company,' he explains. 'In 2012, Morris perfumes had a turnover of around 100 million, then dropped to 60 million with 130 employees. In 2020 the crisis and the decision to put the company into liquidation, with the prospect of plant closure. 'At that time, with a group of colleagues, then Morris employees, we decided to create the cooperative, associated with Legacoop Production and Services,' adds Torsiglieri. 'A cooperative of about 30 people. The management was complex: we went to apply for a Naspi advance as share capital. On the one hand, Legacoop, through its finances, completed the value of the share capital; on the other, the support of Banca Etica in the transitional period was crucial. The company was created on 20 July 2020, but we became operational on 7 September 2020. Technically, it took four months to get the Naspi and during that time, in order to have the necessary liquidity, each partner opened a credit line with Banca Etica. In that way we obtained micro-loans. And the moment the Naspi arrived on the individual accounts, we closed the debt with the bank. Today that is the main institution with which we collaborate, with them 75% of our business volume transits, and they are supporting us in the purchase of new premises, also in the Parma area. Of course, managing to save such a company, moreover during the Covid era, was a real problem: "The first two years, i.e. 2020 and 2021, but also a good part of 2022, were extremely burdensome," Torsiglieri recalls. "Today we have precisely 52 employees, 45 of whom are partners.

The Pirinoli Paper Mill of Cuneo

The Cartiera Pirinoli paper mill in Cuneo is another example of a workers buyout. Today the president is Silvano Carletto, the vice-president and administrative director is Ferdinando Tavella, and it is they who have followed the course of a company that first went bankrupt and then recovered.

"The paper mill is historic, since 1872 it has had several managements over the years," Tavella recounts. "In its most recent phase it was put into liquidation in 2005: it was bought by a group of entrepreneurs, some from Milan, some from the Brescia area, and the company took the name Pkarton spa. There was an investment of several million euro, but then in June 2012 the company was put into liquidation: I remember that a consortium showed up, which then turned out to be fake, they seemed to be interested in buying it and I was the one who set the notary to put pen to paper, but they did not show up. Then the lowest point in January 2014, when bankruptcy was officially declared, with liabilities of around 50 million euros. From bankruptcy to ascent. "The liquidator,' Tavella adds, 'every so often he would say to us in jest: 'But why don't you take the company as a cooperative?' At first we laughed, then we gave it a thought, also because we had a business plan'.

The rest is a great story of workers buyout. In August 2015, Cartiera Pirinoli restarted with 70 worker members (against 152 employees when the company stopped in 2012): 'The worst period for a paper mill, but we managed to close the year with EUR 6 million in turnover,' Tavella concludes. 'Then we reached EUR 13 million in 2016 and EUR 35 million the following year. All thanks to financing partners, Coopfond, which is the mutual organisation linked to Legacoop and Cfi. Banca Etica was one of the first banks to give us the financial support we needed to mobilise the credits'. Today the company has 20 million net assets, 95 workers of which 80 are members.

Wbo Italcables of Caivano (Naples)

In Caivano, in the province of Naples, there are steel workers. This is the story of Italcables, a company that stopped due to the crisis in 2013 and which, after two years of struggle, has restarted as Wbo Italcables, thanks to 51 initial employees and the work of the current president of the co-op Matteo Potenzieri, vice-president Luigi Posillipo and sales director Domenico Capone. The factory has always produced steel cables for infrastructure such as bridges and viaducts.

'In 2008,' Potenzieri recounts, 'there were the first difficulties, due to the bursting of the financial bubble in the US. The previous owners tried to restructure and resist, but then in 2013 they went into receivership: from that moment on, the two main banks did not want to refinance the restart and the plant stopped in January 2013'. It was a very complicated moment, there was no money to buy steel, the raw material that accounts for 70 per cent of total expenses. At that point, the arrangement with creditors became liquidated and 51 of the initial 67 employees (45 workers and 6 officials) started the cooperative. The employees defended and guarded the plant and machinery for 2 years: they raised 1.2 million euros (each paid 25,000 euros) to buy the company and start the new project.

End of the problems? 'No, because those funds raised were not enough, there was still a big problem, we lacked the liquidity to buy the steel,' Potenzieri recalls. 'At that point, the meeting with Banca Etica, with Legacoop Campania's Coopfond and Cfi was crucial. We obtained the resources and started in 2015'. Today, the steel workers have increased: there are 63 employees, and turnover averages around 30 million a year. 'This year we are suffering a bit for the steel sector, for the raw material that costs a lot, for the very strong competition from Asian countries,' Potenzieri concludes. But those who have had that history cannot be afraid.