MILAN – The Prada Group has inked an agreement with unions to further invest in the company’s welfare plan.
“For the Prada Group, placing its own collaborators and their families at the forefront is of fundamental importance,” said chief executive officer Andrea Guerra. “The tools that we have developed together with the unions and that allow us to offer more resources to our people are a way to contribute to reach a better balance between private life and work.”
A performance bonus of 1,450 euros will be increased depending on productivity and it will be hiked by 20 percent if converted into welfare and spent through the MyPradaGroup platform. The platform allows employees to be financially supported on medical and school expenses, for example, but also holidays and shopping vouchers.
“We express great satisfaction over the first agreement reached by the Prada Group on the performance bonus,” the representatives of the three national unions Rsu of Filctem Cgil, Femca Cisl, and Uiltec Uil said in a statement. The three unions worked with the fashion group’s management to determine the performance bonus for all of the employees of the group’s Italian sites.
“We have obtained an important investment on the company welfare and a harmonization plan that will bring at the end of the 2023 to 2026 all the sites or controlled companies to have an equal economic recognition,” they added.
Prada has been building its network of plants over the years, growing in time to comprise 24 industrial facilities, of which 21 are in Italy.
In April, during a tour of the Valvigna plant in Tuscany, chairman Patrizio Bertelli said “the factory represents 50 percent of the life of people and you know that your strategic decisions as an entrepreneur will impact the life of people. We have made the factories a comfortable place. The factory is a family.”
The employees of the group, which includes the Prada, Miu Miu, Church’s and Car Shoe brands, now total 13,768. The company has grown to reach sales of 4.2 billion euros last year, with a presence in 70 countries and 612 directly operated stores.
As reported, by the end of 2023, Prada will double the size of its knitwear factory in Torgiano, in Umbria, a long time knitwear manufacturing hub. It is also planning to have a fully automated shoe production line inside its Levane plant near Arezzo in Tuscany.
Next year, the group is eyeing setting up a new leather goods plant near Siena.
The group will be hiring more than 400 people by the end of the year to strengthen its production capacity and craftsmanship expertise in Italy. A considerable proportion of the new positions will be filled by students of the Prada Group Academy, where new entrants will learn manual and craft skills.
More than 200 new professionals will be trained over the next year across leather goods, footwear and ready-to-wear.
The group will also establish a new permanent branch of the Prada Group Academy at its Scandicci plant, near Florence, dedicated to leather craftsmanship. Around 30 students will be part of the first program there.