Syndicated from The Black Renaissance
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Located in the municipality of Italy’s Castelucchio, Pasotti Ombrelli’s artisans have been working intensely. Peak season has just finished with the umbrella workshop operating at full capacity- a rarity not only for a country but an entire continent suffering from a rain-drenched recession. Whilst other manufacturers and family business are sinking deep into the ground, there’s something distinctly special about the products churned out of the Pasotti workshop. Some umbrellas feature handles with a smooth, wooden hand-carved central shaft. Other handles feature brilliant Swarovski-jeweled ornamental heads of lions and skulls. And then there’s the fabric itself, which hangs differently from other umbrellas in a variety of eye-catching prints. Burberry, the British luxury label juggernaut known for commercializing rainy British weather, should pay attention. Who exactly is the Pasotti family who run the business? What has made Pasotti so special where other Italian businesses have failed? I recently talked to Nicola Begotti, a descendant of Pasotti Ombrelli’s founder. We discuss how her grandmother founded Pasotti as a poor humble girl, how cheap imported substitutes forced the business to innovate, and what it means to be a family-run luxury business.
YOUR GRANDMOTHER, ERNESTA PASOTTI, FOUNDED THE COMPANY MORE THAN 60 YEARS AGO. HOW DID SHE COME ABOUT THE PROCESS OF MAKING HAND-CRAFTED UMBRELLAS?
Over 60 years ago she was part of a big family and they were quite poor like most of the Italian families after World War II. She was doing several different jobs, and one of this was helping a local artisan creating umbrellas. Little by little she understood how to make umbrellas, where to buy the handles, the fabric, and she started producing some umbrellas in her bedroom. And once she had five or six umbrellas ready she was driving to shops and offer her umbrellas.
After World War II people were looking for new beautiful products, so she found her first customers. And little by little she got more and more customers and she started to find some worker to help her. In 1956 she founded the company together with her husband Vittorio Giacomini and in 1960 the company had more then 100 workers!
LOOKING AT YOUR PRODUCT RIGHT NOW IT’S VERY OBVIOUS THAT THE QUALITY OF YOUR UMBRELLAS IS QUITE DISTINCT. OUTSIDE OF ITALY, WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE BEEN THE MOST RECEPTIVE OF YOUR PRODUCT?
95% of our sales goes abroad, we sell everywhere really, from South America to China, from Australia to New York, everywhere in Europe and also Africa. I think this is because our product is absolutely unique. I am not saying that everybody is going to like our designs, as somebody could think that they are a little bit too edgy. But for sure they will admit that this is unique.
Also, being a producer we can offer different lines in different countries: for example, Russian women like very jeweled handles, Japanese like more classic and conservative umbrellas. So when we attending trade shows in Moscow or in Tokyo, before we go, we try to prepare a collection just perfect for that market.
PASOTTI HAS OBVIOUSLY MODERNIZED AND EVOLVED CERTAIN ASPECTS OF ITS COMPANY WHILST KEEPING CERTAIN MANUFACTURING PROCESSES VERY TRADITIONAL. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THIS EVOLUTION?
As I mentioned before, in 1960 we had more then 100 workers. We were producing 3,000 umbrellas per day, while now we produce only 35,000 per year (and we have only 15 workers). This is because until 1980 we were producing quality umbrellas, but they were not so luxury/unique/expensive like the ones we do now. Before they were quality pieces but we also had to be attentive at the price point. After 1980 many Italian companies started to import umbrellas from China, and these umbrellas were much cheaper then our ones, so we understood that we had to change something.
While many Italian companies started to import from China, we decided that this was not our dream. We wanted to keep producing umbrellas, but they needed to be more special and more luxurious- this obviously would have meant something more expensive. The Italian market would have not been enough to sustain us, so we started attending trade shows all around the world, and little by little we found more and more international customers.
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THE LUXURY INDUSTRY IS ONE WHERE WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF FAMILY BUSINESS DISINTEGRATE, AS CORPORATE AND COMPETITIVE BUSINESSES HAVE GAINED DOMINANCE. THE GENERAL CRITICISM IS THAT FAMILY BUSINESSES RUN INTO COMPLICATIONS SUCH AS INTER-GENERATIONAL DYNAMICS, A REFUSAL TO INNOVATE ETC. BUT WHAT ARE THE UPSIDE OF WORKING IN A FAMILY BUSINESS AND THE WAY IT OPERATES?
We don’t want to get bigger, we don’t dream of becoming billionaires! We like to make umbrellas, that’s all. We do not like to sign contracts, to deal with banks, legal offices, lawyers etc. All we want to do is to make umbrellas that we like. Just to make a little example: I am the sales director and I could and maybe should have an assistant, but I don’t want to: I like to handle all commercial emails.
So I reply to all emails by myself: from the private buyer that wants to order one umbrella, to the big fashion group that orders 1,000 umbrellas at a time. And we don’t give priority to bigger customers, our customers are all the same.
THERE ARE SOME PARTICULAR FEATURES OF YOUR UMBRELLAS THAT ARE STUNNING. THE FIRST IS THE USE OF A SINGLE WOODEN PIECE AS THE CENTRAL UMBRELLA SHAFT, AND THE SECOND IS THE UNDENIABLE QUALITY OF THE FABRIC. CAN YOU TELL US WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT THEM?
All our materials are handmade in Italy by local artisans. Like the way we make our products, they don’t make their fabrics and handles dreaming to become rich one day, the main reason why they do so is passion. And that is why we have this result I think…
FOR A SMALL AND TIGHT-KNIT GROUP OF 16 PEOPLE, PASOTTI MAKES 35,000 UMBRELLAS. THAT IN ITSELF IS AN AMAZINGLY HIGH NUMBER CONSIDERING THEY’RE ALL HAND-CRAFTED. HOW ARE YOU ABOUT TO BE SO PRODUCTIVE?
35,000 umbrellas in a year means 140 umbrellas per day, which is reasonable. Of course it happens often that we have to work also on Saturday and Sunday during peak season and we are happy to. Again, we love our job, really.
However we could not do more than this. Now we are so busy that we have to refuse orders because we have too many. It would be logical to hire some more workers but we are not sure we want to get bigger…
YOU MENTIONED THAT YOUR FAMILY IS HESITANT TO EXPAND THE BUSINESS AS YOU KEEP THE PRODUCT AS EXCLUSIVE AS POSSIBLE. ARE THERE ANY PLANS TO GROW THE BUSINESS SLOWLY, IF AT ALL, FROM RISING DEMAND?
Of course it may be that next year we will hire a couple of workers more, but not more then this. Also, making more umbrellas will mean more fabric and more handles. But the artisans that make our fabrics and handles are in the same situation: if I place too big an order they will not be able to supply this in time!
We are artisans, not an industry.
PASOTTI’S INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE IS GROWING, DUE IN NO SMALL PART TO YOU AND THE BUSINESS’S PARTICIPATION IN MANY INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIRS. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE LATEST COUNTRIES YOU ARE EXPANDING INTO?
No doubts about this- China. Until two years ago our sales to China was close to zero. Then something happened (actually I am not even sure what) and there has been an explosion of orders!
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Image Source: Gotstyle, Pasotti Ombrelli