Tag Archives: Family entrepreneurs

Published: Thursday October 06 2016Born in Brescia in 1963, Piero Gandini looked to be an unlikely candidate to succeed his father as head of Flos, Italy’s leading designer lighting producer. He describes his teenage years as a wild time, in which his school attendance was irregular and he devoted his life to socialising with his friends. Today, however, he is CEO of the family company, working with many of the world’s greatest designers to create innovative lamps sold across the globe. ‘My...

Published: Tuesday August 30 2016When Ermenegildo Zegna founded a wool mill in 1910, he had just four looms which he had bought from his father. He located his business in Trivero in the Alpine foothills of Piedmont where the mountain water has only faint mineral traces and makes cloth that is soft and easy to work. Aged just 18, his aim was to make the most beautiful fabrics in the world – and local people saw him as either a dreamer or a madman. But Zegna fabrics quickly became one of...

Published: Thursday August 25 2016According to Olivier Creed, Créateur Parfumeur of The House of Creed, becoming a perfume-maker is not something that can be learnt or invented. You have to have it in your blood, he says – and as the sixth- generation descendant of the founder of the Paris-based perfume house, he should know. He worked with his father James Henry Creed to learn the trade, and his 36-year-old son Erwin has already contributed to the creation of new fragrances in preparation...

Published: Wednesday August 10 2016Riedel, the 260-year-old Austrian family-owned company makes a wide range of differently shaped glasses which enhance the taste of the most popular grape varieties, according to an 11th generation descendant of the founderWhen Maximilian J. Riedel’s grandfather produced the first wine-specific glass, some connoisseurs doubted whether it would make much difference to the taste of the wines they drunk. Wine glasses then were smaller than today’s, made of cut...