Versace Leaves Switzerland

With Italy going strong on the style front but with zero appeal with businessmen in the area of taxes and labor costs, the news that Versace is leaving the Swiss canton of Ticino to return home rouses curiosity. But this decision has actually been made. The Veze s.a. subsidiary with headquarters in Stabio, Switzerland, is closing and will be absorbed by Versace S.p.a., the group's head company based in Milan. So, new jobs are being found for its 37 employees, by fall 2013 the administrative offices will move to Novara and Milan and, above all, for bookkeeping purposes, all the business generated by the men's collection will fall under the made in Italy category.

"We continuously strive for greater operational efficiency and with this move we can assure enhanced integration of production and marketing of the men's and women's lines of the Versace Collection," explains managing director Gian Giacomo Ferraris. Versace was in Switzerland because Zegna was there, the company with which in 1991 the Veze joint-venture was launched, an initiative which was later dissolved.

Now Ferraris, who from his arrival in 2009 has progressively revamped the entire organization of the Medusa house, has decided that having a separate Swiss pole for men's wear made no sense.