Departures, low wages and the political debate

Kering's withdrawal, 2018–2026

The withdrawal of Kering from Ticino took eight years and proceeded in four stages. In October 2018, while the Italian investigation was still open, LGI announced the transfer of about 150 of its roughly 900 jobs in Ticino to Milan and Novara. Most were administrative positions, about thirty of them held by Swiss residents.¹ In May 2019, two weeks after the tax settlement, Kering announced that it would concentrate its logistics in a new hub operated by a third-party logistics company at Trecate in the province of Novara, about fifty kilometres west of Milan. The Ticino operation, then spread over some twenty warehouses of different sizes, was to lose about four hundred of its roughly eight hundred jobs between 2020 and 2022. According to the press reports, only about fifteen of the employees concerned were Swiss residents.² The Trecate hub was described as having a floor area of 160,000 square metres and a storage capacity eight times that of the Swiss operation, whose largest site at Sant'Antonino measured about 20,000 square metres.³

The third stage followed in 2024. The Sant'Antonino logistics company of the group, referred to in the trade press as LGL, was dissolved on 16 July 2024. The Bioggio logistics centre was closed and sold in December 2024, while the Gucci outlet at Fox Town in Mendrisio, open since 1995, closed on 15 September 2024.⁴ In the fourth stage the remaining staff of LGI in Cadempino, about 120 persons, received notice of termination. RSI reported this in April 2025 and stated that nearly half of those affected were residents of Ticino and that all operational activities would end by the end of 2026, leaving only the building in Cadempino.⁵ The Italian trade press dated the final dismissals to April 2024, so that the exact date should be treated with caution. With the end of LGI, about three decades of Kering's presence in Ticino came to a close.

The other departures

Kering was not alone. In February 2016 Giorgio Armani announced that it would transfer most of its Mendrisio operation to Milan, and about forty employees lost their jobs. A social plan agreed on 17 March 2016 granted CHF 10,000 to employees who left and CHF 3,000 to those who moved to Milan. The municipality of Mendrisio estimated the resulting loss of tax revenue at CHF 8 million a year for the municipality alone.⁶ Prada closed its Mendrisio head office in the same year.⁷ In September 2019 Tom Ford, then part of the Zegna group, closed its logistics and distribution facility in Stabio, where about twenty employees received notice and five were offered transfers to Gallarate and Florence. A Unia trade union representative commented that with the fiscal advantages disappearing it was not surprising that the brands gradually decided to leave.⁸

The most symbolic case was that of Zegna's Consitex in Mendrisio, the pioneer of the cluster. The group announced a partial transfer of production to Oleggio in the province of Novara by the end of 2025, affecting about eighty jobs. Bespoke tailoring, prototyping and sample production were to remain in Mendrisio with about seven hundred employees. The reasons given included the continuous rise of the cantonal minimum wage and the volatility of the Swiss franc. The trade union also pointed to the legal requirements for the "Made in Italy" label. The group expected cost savings of about 30 per cent, roughly the same margin that had motivated the move to Switzerland in 1977.⁹ The circle that had opened with Zegna's arrival thus partly closed with its partial return.

Year Event Jobs affected 2016 Armani moves Mendrisio operation to Milan about 40 2016 Prada closes Mendrisio head office n/a 2018 LGI transfers administrative jobs to Milan and Novara about 150 2019 Kering announces logistics hub in Trecate about 400 2019 Tom Ford closes Stabio logistics about 20 2024 LGL Sant'Antonino dissolved, Bioggio sold, Gucci outlet n/a closed 2025 Last LGI staff in Cadempino receive notice about 120 2025 Consitex moves cutting department to Oleggio about 80

Notes

1. RSI (8 October 2018, above). ↩
2. Allnews, "Kering va supprimer 400 postes au Tessin d'ici 2022" (22 May 2019), https://allnews.ch/node/15756. ↩
3. La Conceria, "Goodbye Switzerland, Kering to relocate logistics to Italy (from 2020)", https://www.laconceria.it/en/news/goodbye-switzerland-kering-to-relocate-logistics-to-italy-from-2020. ↩
4. La Conceria (Kering farewell, above). ↩
5. RSI, "Luxury Goods in Ticino, ultimo atto: saltano 120 posti" (4 April 2025), https://www.rsi.ch/info/ticino-grigioni-e-insubria/Luxury-Goods-in-Ticino-ultimo-atto-saltano-120-posti--2730439.html. ↩
6. RSI (28 January 2017, above). ↩
7. Tio.ch (7 October 2018, above). ↩
8. RSI (12 September 2019, above). ↩
9. La Conceria (Consitex, above). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.