For cashmere capitalist, dignity is bottom line

Motivated at age 15 by the tears in his father's eyes when the former farmer was forced to accept a factory job, Brunello Cucinelli is anything but an orthodox capitalist.

His colourful cashmere brand is defying recessionary shrinkage across the luxury sector - a feat achieved while creating ideal conditions for his workers.

He has converted most of a stone 14th century town in Umbria into a factory where no one punches a time clock, lunch breaks are generous and the only rules pasted on the walls are quotes from philosophers and writers.

"I believe in real capitalism. The company has to make profits," he said in a sprawling, spotless office lined with shelves of spools of cashmere on one side and philosophical treatises on the other. In September his privately held Gruppo Cucinelli opened a new mono-brand store on Rome's exclusive Via Borgognona near the Spanish Steps. There are plans for 10 more by end-2010.

Revenues this year are forecast at €154 million, around seven per cent more than last year. It's a slowing trend from double-digit gains in both sales and profit in previous years, but puts Mr Cucinelli in select company: Hermes and Louis Vuitton are among the only luxury brands growing this year.

"Brunello Cucinelli's ... is an understated product - it's not logo-mania - and highly sophisticated," said Armando Branchini, head of Milan fashion consulting firm Intercorporate.

The combination of classic style with a modern touch, thorough workmanship and very high quality basic materials is, he said, helping Mr Cucinelli and another Italian cashmere brand, Loro Piana, to win market share.