Word: milan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
PARIS' PLACE DES VOSGES, originally called the Place Royale, was the first great Renaissance square in Paris. Henri IV first had in mind using it as a silk factory to rival Milan, but it later turned into one of the most fashionable addresses in Paris. The square, with its colonnade, is actually a series of joined houses; by royal decree the façades were kept similar. Built of brick and stone, it became a model for Inigo Jones when he came to design Covent Garden, London's first square in the Italian manner...
...stout, energetic Italian who considers painting his lifework and business a mere sideline. As a painter, whose work bears the name Francesco Torri,* he has achieved critical acclaim throughout Italy for his craftsmanlike landscapes. But it is at his sideline that Franco Marinotti excels. As president of Milan's mammoth Snia Viscosa, he has almost singlehanded turned a tottering business into one of Italy's ten largest corporations and one of the world's biggest textile combines. Last year, with 60 plants turning out textiles in seven countries, Snia Viscosa was worth $500 million, had boosted production...
Distress Call. Snia Viscosa has been a one-man outfit almost since the day Marinotti appeared in Milan 28 years ago. Born on the Venetian plains, he had already won a reputation as a hustling textile salesman, first working for Italy's Cascagni Seta mills, where, at 23, he was manager of all the company's mills in Czarist Russia, later as boss of his own worldwide trade corporation. In 1929 Marinotti got a distress call from Societá Nazionale Industria Applicazione Viscosa, onetime shipping company turned textile manufacturer. Snia Viscosa, overcapitalized and overinflated at the 1929 crash...
Marinotti rushed back to the company's headquarters in Milan, slashed stock par value, cut excess payroll, closed down inefficient plants. Snia Viscosa soon became a profitable proposition-and has remained so ever since. Though Marinotti pushed production for Mussolini, he was thrown in jail for defying the Germans. Released, he went into voluntary exile in Switzerland, wrote poetry and painted while the Allies bombed Snia Viscosa into ruins. After the war, at the pleading of stockholders, he returned to Milan and pledged every penny of his personal fortune (by then well into the millions) to rebuild the firm...
Oldtime Pitchman. As it turned out, Marinotti's hard-driving leadership was more than enough for the job. Unlike other war-stricken Italian firms, Snia Viscosa never took a penny in American aid. Marinotti sold the company's skyscraper headquarters in Milan, converted other negotiable assets into cash, trimmed payrolls and expenses. Without going into debt or accepting government handouts, Snia Viscosa was producing 55,000 tons of fiber annually by 1947 (present production: 135,000 tons annually). But with productive capacity vastly greater than Italy's consumer market, Snia Viscosa had to export or topple...