Zegna buys control of top-shelf fabric maker Tessitura Ubertino

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jun 3, 2021

The Ermenegildo Zegna Group’s acquisition campaign continues. The high-end Italian apparel manufacturer and gentlemanly menswear brand has acquired control of Tessitura Ubertino, the top-shelf fabric maker.

 
Under the terms of the deal, Zegna will buy a 60% majority stake in Tessitura Ubertino, while the two sons of founder Adalgiso Ubertino, Alberto and Paolo, will retain a 40% stake, as well as responsibility for both management and creative direction.
 
The acquisition significantly strengthens Zegna’s position in the high-end textile market, where Zegna also controls historic Italian specialist producers like Bonotto, the 100-year-old, fourth-generation, Venetian slow-fashion exotic-wool producer; knitting experts Dondi and Tessitura di Novara, famed for its silk weaving.

Together with Lanificio Zegna, the group’s fabric division, these manufacturers embody a unique Italian luxury textile empire aimed at creating unparalleled quality textile products while preserving the specificities, know-how and craftsmanship of Made in Italy, Zegna said in its release.
 
Tessitura Ubertino is based at Pratrivero, Valdilana, Biella in the key Italian silk region, specialized in high-end fabrics for womenswear.
 
“This new acquisition of Tessitura Ubertino adds a new element  to our luxury textile division which is represented by the finest companies in our country, each one with its own specialization in high-end fabrics. We have always believed in the 'Italian Fashion Industry' supply chain for which it represents a very important asset," said Gildo Zegna, CEO of the group.
 
Founded in 1981 by Adalgiso Ubertino, Tessitura Ubertino is a boutique weaving mill that has been creating premium quality fabrics for women, such as tweed and jacquard, for over 30 years. Today it supplies fabrics to major fashion marques showing on the runways of Milan and Paris.
 
"Zegna Group is a global leader in luxury menswear and one of the major players as a textile hub of excellence. By sharing the same roots and the tradition in the highest quality fabrics it has been natural to sign this agreement, to give a new impulse to our company and to reach our new goals at the same time. Pearls, ribbons, sequins, fancy yarns, lots of color and great attention to details: since its inception in the 1980s, Tessitura Ubertino has developed as a real research laboratory in fabrics where innovation and creativity have been put at the service of leading international luxury and women's fashion houses,” stressed Alberto Ubertino, creative director of Tessitura Ubertino and co-CEO with his brother Paolo.