It was a chilly April day, but Bulgari was prepared. As cars drew up to its new factory, a squad of men and women in black suits swiftly offered black umbrellas to shield the arrivals from the rain. Their destination: the official opening ceremony of Bulgari’s expanded factory, which it calls the largest single-brand jewelry factory in the world.
Now totaling 33,000 square meters, or about 355,000 square feet, the Manifattura Bulgari could house 168 singles tennis courts. But since January, when work began in the new space, it has been the design and production site for Bulgari collections such as B.zero1, Serpenti and Divas’ Dream. Only some one-off high jewelry pieces continue to be made in the Rome atelier.
The opening was celebrated with speeches and a ribbon cutting led by Jean-Christophe Babin, Bulgari’s chief executive and the newly named head of LVMH Watches; Toni Belloni, the president of LVMH Italy, a division of Bulgari’s parent company, Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton; officials from the Italian government; members of the military in full dress uniform; and an archbishop.
The ceremony coincided with the country’s promotion of Made in Italy, which this year included the luxury sector among its highlights. Bulgari regularly touts its Italian roots — it was founded in Rome 141 years ago — and in 2017 opened its initial 15,000-square-meter jewelry factory in Valenza, historically the center of the country’s goldsmith tradition.
A glassed-in bridge now connects that structure to the expansion space. “We need more capacity,” Mr. Babin said over espresso before the ceremony. “The brand developed more than we had planned. Production will more than double by 2029. And by 2029, it will have quadrupled from the opening in 2017.”
LVMH does not disclose the revenue of its individual brands, although the group’s 2024 annual report noted that Bulgari’s Aeterna high jewelry collection, celebrating the house’s 140th anniversary, had achieved record-breaking revenue.
“When the manifattura opened in 2017, it had 370 craftsmen,” Mr. Babin continued. “Now we have more than 1,100. And we will be hiring 500 to 600 more.”
Scuola Bulgari, a new artisanal training program established at the factory in conjunction with the Tarì Design School (TADS) of Naples, is scheduled to start in September with an 80-student class. Members of the public may apply, and its graduates will be able to work anywhere.
The school will operate alongside Bulgari’s own Academy, a program for new employees that so far has trained 700 artisans.
To keep those who end up on Bulgari’s payroll happy, the new facility has several perks: espresso machines in hallways, calcetto (soccer) game tables in lounges and an airy cafeteria with green leather banquettes and walls of windows overlooking the green landscape.
The parking lot is shaded by canopies of solar panels. The brand said there were 4,120 in total throughout the 89,000-square-meter property, which combined with a 200-meter deep geothermal system provided roughly half of the facility’s energy needs; the rest came from outside sources. “We are carbon zero,” Mr. Babin proudly announced about the factory.
The company also has worked with a local park authority to plant 250 trees in the area around its property and created a trail and an outdoor events space, accessible to employees and the local community. And it is keeping about one million bees in the adjacent woods; the ceremony’s attendees received some honey as a souvenir.
Celebrating such an expansion despite the current downturn in the luxury market didn’t seem to faze management. “There will always be cycles, but jewelry has been a luxury for thousands of years,” Mr. Babin said. “It’s the ultimate luxury in terms of timelessness and future value. Gold will never go to zero, it will never disappear. Diamonds are the same. You may not grow in a certain year, but we are opening with a lot of optimism.”
The post Bulgari Expands Its Jewelry Factory in Italy appeared first on New York Times.
