Sourcing · Manufacturing · Acquisition

Your person in Italy.

American houses engage me to find Italian producers and manufacturers, speak to them in their own language, drive out to see the workshop for myself, and stay between the two of you until the goods leave the yard.

Book a consultation The method

Fifteen minutes. You leave it with three Italian producers who could make your product, engaged or not.

Where I am

Modena & Sassuolo

Ceramic tile, packaging machinery, motor cars, aged balsamico, Parmigiano. One of the densest belts of skilled manufacture in Europe, and the one I can reach before lunch.

Select a gilded district to see what it makes

I — The difficulty

Italy is a hard country to buy from.

Not for want of makers willing to take your work. Because there is no front door, and the whole trade still runs on people who already know one another.

Finding them

The best ones are not online

No English site. Frequently no site at all. The finest small houses take work by reputation and have not touched their brochure since 2011. You will not find them on the first page, and you will certainly not find them on a marketplace.

Reaching them

A cold English email goes nowhere

This trade runs on the telephone and on turning up in person. A note from a stranger in Ohio is not refused. It is simply never answered, which feels the same but costs you three weeks to discover.

Trusting them

You cannot judge what you cannot see

Photographs always flatter. The questions that matter are whether the workshop is genuinely theirs, whether the hand holds at two thousand pieces rather than twenty, and whether they will still answer the telephone in March.

II — The work

Three ways in.

The same task each time. I am the one standing on the Italian side of the table.

Buy Italian goods

Sourcing

For houses, importers and retailers who intend to sell Italian goods as they are made.

Oil, wine, pasta, cheese, coffee
Ceramic, glass, marble, stone
Leather, footwear, cloth
Furniture and lighting

Made under your name

Manufacture

For brands who want their own product made here and marked accordingly.

Private label and contract manufacture
Skincare, cosmetics, fragrance
Short runs and modest minimums
Samples, tooling, first production

Own the source

Acquisition

For buyers who would rather own the Italian house than place orders with it.

Owner-run firms without succession
Approaches made by telephone, in Italian
First meetings arranged and interpreted
You keep your own advisors throughout

III — The method

Four movements, in order.

You brief me

One form, or one conversation. What the product is, how many, what you intend to pay, and by when.

I draw the list

Chamber of commerce records, district associations, fair registries, and men I already know. Not a search engine.

III

I telephone them

In Italian. Real capacity, real minimums, lead times, who else they make for, and whether they actually want the work.

I go and look

Photographs, film, samples posted to you. Then you deal with them directly, and I remain between you for as long as it is useful.

IV — Plainly

Three things, said straight.

Everyone asks these on the first call. They may as well live on the page.

You pay me. The maker does not.

No commission from the supplier and no quiet margin on your unit price. You see the quote they wrote, and you are free to verify it with them. An agent paid by the factory has a reason to steer you, which is precisely the thing you are afraid of.

You get me, not an account manager.

The person who answers your email is the person who walks the workshop floor. It is a one-man practice by design. It also means I take a small number of clients at a time, and say so when I am full.

Italy is not the cheap option.

If the lowest possible cost per unit is what you need, go to Asia and feel no guilt about it. Come here when the words on the label are worth something to the person buying from you.

V — Fit

Not for you if

Cheaper for us both to establish it now.

You are chasing the lowest unit price on earth. That is a different continent, and an honest one.
You need fifty thousand pieces next month. Italian workshops are small, and they are usually spoken for.
You want freight, customs and duty handled. I will introduce you to a forwarder, but I am not one.
You want to stay anonymous from your maker forever. I hand the relationship over. That is the point of it.
You would prefer the factory paid my fee. It will not, and I will not ask it to.

VI — Questions

Answers.

What exactly is the free consultation?

Fifteen minutes, in English, at an hour that suits you. You tell me what you are trying to source or have made; I come back to you with three real Italian producers who could do it, with company names, region, and a fair sense of price and minimum order. Yours to keep whether you engage me or not. If it is useful you will come back, and if it is not you have lost a quarter of an hour.

Do you take a commission from the supplier?

No. I am paid by you and only by you. You receive the maker's own quotation and you may verify it with them directly at any point. It is the only arrangement under which my judgement is worth anything to you.

Which trades do you cover?

Food and drink, beauty and personal care, leather goods and footwear, furniture and lighting, ceramic and stone, and light machinery. If your product falls outside that, write anyway. I will tell you honestly whether I would be of any use to you.

I already have a maker. Will you go and inspect them?

Yes. A single visit: I arrive, walk the floor, photograph and film everything, ask the awkward questions in Italian, and send you a written account of what I found. Usually arranged within a fortnight.

Must I come to Italy myself?

Not to begin, and not to place a first order. But if this becomes a real supply line you should come once, because sitting down to lunch with the owner changes how you are treated for years afterwards. I will arrange the trip and come with you.

How soon do I see names?

Three within a few days, at no charge. A full researched shortlist inside ten working days. Workshop visits depend on where they sit, ordinarily one to three weeks out.

Who are you?

Italian, based in Modena in Emilia-Romagna, inside one of the densest regions of skilled manufacture in Europe. My career has been spent building sourcing and outreach systems for B2B companies, which is the same craft applied elsewhere: find the right people, reach them, judge them, keep the relationship warm. The Italian half of it I was simply born with.

VII — Begin

Take fifteen minutes.

Tell me what you are looking to source, have made, or buy. You will leave the call with three real producers who could do it, whether or not you ever engage me.

Company names, region, and what they genuinely make
A fair price band and minimum order
My honest read on whether Italy is right for this at all

Held in English, at an hour that suits New York. Italy runs six hours ahead.

Free consultation 15 min