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Interview with Gianluigi Candiani

Gianluigi Candiani
Gianluigi Candiani
President
TRC Candiani S.p.A
TRC Candiani S.p.A

In the contemporary world the retail sector is the key when it comes to selling a pair of jeans.
Gianluigi Candiani, Chairman and President of TRC Candiani S.p.A shares his expertise about denim market and retail sector as he converses with Fibre2Fashion Correspondent Manushi Gandhi. Synopsis: Candiani Denim is 75 years old denim manufacturing mill based in Italy. The company is one of the bastions of denim where most of the European mills have vanished. It is a family owned business, with a very small management and decision making process. Candiani today has over 650 employees, produces 35 million meters each year and can be considered the most advanced industrial structure in the history of Denim. Gianluigi Candiani was born on December 24, 1956 in Busto Arsizio, near Milan. After his graduation in accounting, he attended the Bocconi University in Milan and in 1980 he graduated in business economy. Then he worked as CEO in the family industry, the Candiani Denim. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company since 1997. Excerpts:

Being a 75 years old Denim maker, according to you, how has the usage and consumption of Denim changed over the years?

Denim has undergone changes over the years. There was a fundamental transformation at the beginning of the manufacturing process, when there was an evolution in spinning, from the open-end to the ringspun yarns. There was also a modification in the way of seeing the jeans: during the revolutionary periods in the twentieth century, they became a fashion item with an alternative reputation, and no longer a workwear garment. This improvement in the global view of jeans is due also to the changes in its fabrication, and in this regard Candiani has played a key role with the development of the most beautiful stretch Denim fabric which influenced the global Premium Denim Industry. Jeans prospective changed also in washed garments.
 

While manufacturing Denim in bulk, how difficult it is to mantain consistency in production? Are there chances of some shade differences etc.?

In a Denim mill, it is impossible to run laboratory sort of production. Every time we have to create something, we need to face the risk of producing a small bulk that makes the difference between sampling and the following manufacturing system. We can say our samples and production are always consistent considering that we make Denim, not rockets. We are a textile industry, not the aeronautic one.

Do you think that the Denim business/sector is affected by seasons? Is there any particular season which helps to boost the Denim sales?

Of course Denim is affected by seasons. Every time it is characterized by different shades, colors and finishes. Denim and fashion are a global business, and this leads to a mix of different styles. Furthermore, some of our customers are programming their collections, others are just going for a fast retail sector.

Recently, in which regions the demand of Denim has been steadily increasing? According to you what can be the major reason for this?

Candiani is 100% global, and it is really difficult to define our confines. Europe, for example, expanded its borders, and we are talking about the EuroMed, which includes whole Europe, North Africa and Turkey. North America grew a lot in the last ten years, and we are developing relationships with South America and Asia and we have good expectations on both.

What kind of innovations have been recently seen in the Denim market and which one of them is expected to have a boom in the future?

In our case, leading the stretch industry, the biggest innovation seems to be referred to an improvement of the performances. We combine new elastomers, new fibers and specific finishes, to create the perfect stretch Denim with great recovery and very low growth. This is booming for us and it is replacing the 98-100% cotton fabrics. Another important innovation takes place in dyeing with different technologies, to achieve multiple colors which will wash down in a lot of different ways, including a variety of non-proper indigo shades, which can be a big alternative to the classic blue. In our specific case, innovation goes hand in hand with sustainability. Thanks to the advanced technologies and to the knowledge accumulated during the years, Candiani develops and offers continuously new proposals for our customers. An example is the N-Denim: it is a new way to dye, conceived in our company and patented, which uses nitrogen in the dyeing process in order to safe 33% of water consumption and 50% of chemical agents.

These days the growth of the textile industry is more driven by the retail sector. How far do you agree with this?

I mostly agree. In the contemporary world the retail sector is the key when it comes to selling a pair of jeans. The Denim industry is highly saturated by brands and retailers have to make the garments look attractive considering the global and local economical condition.

Some of the leading branded jeans manufacturers are incorporating smart fabrics and interactive technologies. What level of success can be estimated for such products in market amidst constricted financial set up of present times?

It is really hard for me to define smart fabrics. We strongly believe in consious fabrics with tangible sustainable contents as much as we like to believe in crazy innovations to reach very different optical effects or a very specific touch and feel. Interactive technologies are very important to let the consumer know the features of garments creating a more organic and closer relationship: it is a natural evolution of product-focused communication and it is a new standard of marketing which we see increasing more and more. These fabrics, developed with these crazy innovations, therefore become very important tools to communicate our key values even if they represent a small percentage of our collection.

You have a really impressive clientele. What factors do Denim brands take into account when they decide which mills to work with?

It is fundamentally the product, even if some brands really take care about the origins of the fabrics. They evaluate important aspect of the business such as the environmental consciousness, working conditions, and obviously the price. As I said before, in Candiani innovation matches sustainability, and this simply means to do the right thing during the manufacturing process, at the right price. The product looks good, or even better than the others, and has the same price as the other, or less.

What is the market size of stretch Denim? Is it an old and out of fashion thing in the global market?

Stretch Denim is almost 75% of our production and we have to consider that preferences and desires of people have changed over the years. Nowadays, men appreciate comfort stretch fabric, while women admire both comfort and power stretch Denim.

According to you, what makes Candiani a distinguished Denim producer?

Certainly our history. Our company was founded in 1938 by Luigi Candiani, so this year we are celebrating our 75th anniversary and we come to the fourth generation with my son, Alberto. Candiani has expanded over the years and today we are the major Denim manufacturer in Europe. Despite the progress, our society has never been delocalized: we are located in the heart of the Ticino Park right outside Milan since our foundation, because we firmly believe in the “Made in Italy” and in our textile heritage which is handed down from generation to generation; this causes the fabric to be treated by employees with great skills and technical knowledge given from the experience. Living in a very green surrounding has predisposed us to nurture a strong environmental awareness and we intend to pass it on to our customers through our products. All over the world we are renowned to be “The greenest textile industry in the blue world”, due to our experties, our heritage and our passion to do what we know best: Denim.
Published on: 19/11/2013

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.