Luciano Benetton additionally had a short interval in politics, serving as senator of the Italian Republican Occasion from 1992 to 1994. Credit score: Delbo Andrea/Shuttersock
Luciano Benetton, co -founder of one of the crucial emblematic vogue manufacturers in Italy, celebrates his 90th birthday on Might 13. His outstanding journey covers the worlds of vogue, sport, from System 1 to Rugby, and enterprise, together with a protracted affiliation with the Italy freeway community, Autostrade Per L’alia.
It was in 1965 that Benetton, born in Treviso, united forces along with his brothers Gilberto and Carlo, and Sister Giuliana, to launch the Benetton group. The corporate, primarily based in Ponzano Veneto, rapidly left its model producing garments for males, ladies and kids on labels resembling United Colours of Benetton, subcolors of Benetton and Sisley.
The start of the model have been modest. Luciano personally drove round northern Italy, delivering vivid coloured bridges to Treviso retailers to Cortina. Lengthy earlier than “Made in Italy” turned a world trademark, Benetton had already opened a flagship retailer on Madison Avenue in New York.
Luciano Benetton additionally had a short interval in politics, serving as senator of the Italian Republican Occasion from 1992 to 1994. Nevertheless, his enterprise life has not been with out setbacks. In 2013, a decade after mentioning his intention to retire, Benetton and his brothers delivered management of the corporate to the subsequent technology. His son Alessandro assumed the place of president, however resigned in 2014, and eventually left the Board in 2016 resulting from strategic disagreements with the household. Francesco Gori was appointed president, and Tommaso Brusò turned the director of Operations the next 12 months.
An intense life
After a tough monetary interval, which culminated in a file lack of 180 million euros in 2017, Luciano returned to the Board in 2018 as Government President on the age of 83, as soon as once more he took care of economic operations and communications, along with Toscani.
That very same 12 months, the tragedy hit with the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa on August 14, which resulted in 43 deaths and a whole lot of displaced. The incident turned on public outrage as a result of concessions of Autostrade Per L’alia, a part of the Atlantia group, during which the Benetton household have been the principle shareholders. The requires the revocation of those contracts adopted rapidly.
Then, the CEO of Atlantia, Giovanni Castellucci, resigned in September 2019. Two months later, Luciano Benetton revealed an open letter in Italian newspapers, defending his household and denouncing what he described as a “hatred marketing campaign.” He insisted that no member of the Benetton household had been immediately concerned within the administration of Autostrade, portraying the household as a sufferer of public vilipendio.
From enterprise success and international affect to political dedication and public controversy, Luciano Benetton’s life displays the broader transformations of postwar truth. At 90, it’s nonetheless one of the crucial emblematic and complicated figures within the fashionable historical past of the nation.
Be attentive to Euro Weekly Information to get the most recent information about Europe and Italy.