Word: castelfranco
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There was no joy in Castelfranco Veneto. The northern Italian town's major industry, the Confitex raincoat and cloth factory, which employed 1,650 workers, was about to close. The company was nearly $20 million in debt and losses were mounting daily. Lamented the parliamentary representative from that district: "For us, Confitex's closing will be worse than an earthquake...
Today Confitex and Castelfranco Veneto are thriving, beneficiaries of a new government-sponsored hospital for ailing companies. The agency, known as GEPI (for Gestioni e Partecipazioni Industriali, or Industrial Management and Participation), was created by the Italian government 18 months ago to revive fundamentally strong firms that have fallen on hard times. And times have been particularly hard for Italy's industry in the past three or four years. Under the impact of incessant strikes, inept management, stiffening foreign competition and generally dismal economic conditions, Italian companies have been disappearing as fast as scampi at a gondolier...
...find private firms to buy shares as well. Often GEPI arranges a merger with a stronger company. If a company's situation appears hopeless, GEPI may simply abandon it and concentrate on developing a substitute industry in the region to provide alternative employment. In the case of Castelfranco Veneto's Confitex, GEPI bought a 100% interest in the firm and streamlined its production...