So it's official: having your confessor in your Board of Directors truly helps your shares. At least that's what happens if we believe the latest Brunello Cucinelli story.
The “Umbrian king of cashmere” entered with his Solomeo-based company the Milan Stock Exchange in May 2012, announcing at the time that he had asked his confessor Father Cassiano to become a member of the Board of Directors.
Since then the company increased its sales especially abroad (sales in Italy went slightly down) and earnings for the first 9 months of this year amounted to more than 17,000 million euros. In a way, Cucinelli's “Made in Heaven” intentions seemed to be paying back.
Then, just a few days ago, more good news arrived: Cucinelli stated that his workers will receive a very special Christmas present, 5 million euros earned from the company's shares.
The entrepreneur told Umbria24 that the money, to be considered as a family gift to all those workers who grew up with them since the company was established 34 years ago, will be divided among his 783 workers. While this seems an admirable and unique gift especially in times of crisis, critics claim there may be something else behind it.
On 12th November, just two days before the general strike in Europe, the Perugia section of the left-wing Italian trade union Cgil claimed Cucinelli's company doesn't care about the labour conditions of its workers.
The trade union stated it is not even possible to talk about rights inside what they call the Grand Ducato di Solomeo (the Grand Duchy of Solomeo), since no workers' representatives can be elected and no meetings are allowed. In a nutshell, the trade union would like to see what's truly happening among and behind the cashmere yarns and knitting machines at the company.
Cucinelli highlighted how the gift has no connection with the trade union requests, but it's something he had on his mind for a while.
This special gift - in money and not shares as somebody had stated - will apparently arrive before Christmas, making sure that further debates against the Umbrian entrepreneur will be silenced.
So is Cucinelli truly a modern saint, an enlightened entrepreneur à la Adriano Olivetti (Cucinelli often claimed that his company is founded on ethical principles, labour quality, and ancient Greek and Roman philosophical ideals)? Or is he just trying to buy the workers' silence? The doubt remains.
In the meantime, according to rumours, after announcing this very special Christmas gift for his workers, Cucinelli also gave them the possibility to meet the trade unions inside the Solomeo-based HQ. Maybe this could be a story with a happy ending for both the entrepreneur and the workers inolved: the former may have got his profits, and the latter may get their bread, and, hopefully, their roses too.
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