MASA, a truly Italian story
that starts in 1949
and develops over three generations
The entrepreneurial adventure of MASA starts with Antonio Salvati and Giuseppe Macchi, the grandfathers who will pass on to their children a successful business synergy thanks to the union of the two families that gave the company its name, MASA (Macchi – Salvati).
Over the years, the headquarters of the company moved a few times until year 2000, when the factory in Cairate, Bolladello (Varese) was finally aligned with administrative offices, sales and logistics. Today, the company’s hea dquarters in Cairate is composed of all the core parts of the business: yarn reception, weaving, the creative department, distribution.
The second-generation author in charge of the development and growth of this business, Giovanni Salvati, beca e the driving engine of the company together with his brothers and his cousin thanks to the outstanding perspicacity and a long-term outlook.
“We are trying to do our best to maintain the extraordinary results our fathers and grandfathers had achieved, yet our aim is to improve constantly”. The words by Cristina Salvati, who together with her cousins, Milena Salvati and Massimo Macchi, run the family-business today, convey the pride of belonging and the awareness of the rich, 70-year-old history of an extremely successful textile business whose high-quality manufacture has always been a step ahead while dictating textile sector trends.
The crucial element of being proud of the company’s success is belonging to a family that has become an in tegral part of the territory. Cristina Salvati explains, “the company and all the employees are our family, and they are to be safeguarded at all times in spite of anything”.
The left: Cristina Salvati, Massimo Macchi, Milena Salvati
The guidelines indicated by Giovanni Salvati to maintain the production in Italy even if it would mean facing a few more sacrifices have never been questioned by the descendants. “Every time we need to hire somebody new and we examine the curricula, I am surprised to see that many candidates have had various work experiences at nume rous companies, while many MASA’s employees started working with us 20 or 30 years ago and they are still here, which is exactly the opposite to the current work market trends” say Cristina and Milena Salvati with complicity.
Masa’s production is 100% Italian, including the weaving stage whose current production costs in Italy have become extremely high.
In the past, the weaving machine used to work non-stop for weeks during the production of the series, unlike to day, when the customization and productive flexibilit have become all that matters, and the variety of available colors is countless (there are more than 200 base colors and the fabrics coloring can be customized); “clients come to us holding a magazine in their hands asking us to reproduce an image they like: this is the extent of a tailor-made product customization for the clients that we offer today” explains Cristina Salvati. Then, apart from the customized production, there is a range of products defined as “ready warehouse” consisting of about thirty different patterns and standard colors that clients can al
ways find here. It translates to a significant effort for the company in terms of resource investment. “Also, we carry out the yarn dye which means that the dyeing process at yarn level takes place here at our textile department which allows the fabrics to remain unchanged after industrial and intense washing cycles’’, adds Massimo Macchi, the third cousin.
“Our product is mainly purchased by industrial laundries however, there are also large hotel chains from all over the world among our clients’’. The choice, made years ago, to add a rich collection of bedroom and bathroom articles to the 100% Made in Italy production of table linen, aims at meeting and satisfying any request and need expressed by all types of clients.
The goal of Masa team over the last 70 years has always been and will always be the attention given to the clients and their needs as a reliable partner who is willing to intervene at any time during the product design stage, proposal or after-sale stage “we are proud to admit that the attention we have for our clients has been recognized by many’’.
“In order to thank everyone and share these important achievements made of satisfaction and great successes, we are working on many surprises that will be revealed in the month of September’’. •
by Marzo Nava
Detergo Magazine May 2019
