Prada aims to hire over 400 workers in Italy this year

MILAN (Reuters) - Prada aims to hire more than 400 people in Italy by the end of the year to strengthen its production capacity and maintain growth, the Italian luxury group said on Thursday.

The investment plan, dedicated to the enlargement of its plants in central Italy as well as training and hiring new people, will give the group greater agility and a reduction of the time-to-market, Prada said.

Prada, listed on the stock market in Hong Kong, has roughly 5,300 employees in Italy, of whom 3,200 are in manufacturing.

"We have an ongoing commitment to strengthen the industrial backbone of the group, while being respectful of our long-time suppliers," Prada's Industrial Director Massimo Vian said in a statement.

Prada, as other big luxury brands, has strengthened its supply chain in the last few years and could bring more manufacturing in-house.

Roughly half of the new workers will be trained by the Prada Group Academy, a professional school set up by the company to teach manual and craft skills across leather goods, footwear and ready-to-wear sectors.

Prada's sales exceeded analyst expectations in 2022 thanks to a strong performance in Europe. The luxury group's net revenues rose 21% at constant exchange rates to 4.2 billion euros ($4.6 billion).

Fashion associations in Italy, such as Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI), point to a growing demand for skilled workers in the country from the big luxury brands and their suppliers, which however struggle to find people trained or interested in this kind of job.

Italy accounts for 50-55% of the global production of luxury clothing and leather goods, consultancy Bain calculates.

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(Reporting by Elisa Anzolin, editing by Federico Maccioni and Keith Weir)