Veneto Sviluppo Invests in Garmont

Garmont International Srl has received investment from the offices of Veneto Sviluppo, the Regional Holding Company in Marghera (Venice). Veneto Sviluppo will invest one million Euros in the company, which equates to the acquisition of a 25 percent share in the capital stock. Founded in 1964 in the Treviso area of Northern Italy, Garmont® is a premier international brand of performance footwear for mountaineering, hiking and other outdoor pursuits. The Brand was recently taken over by Pierangelo Bressan, an industrialist with considerable experience in the premium outdoor clothing industry. Under this new ownership, a full service subsidiary was recently launched for North America located in Exeter, New Hampshire.

This collaboration with Garmont International is one of the most recent examples of the process called industrial restart in which Veneto Sviluppo Spa participates through its own risk capital fund and on a partnership basis to restructure, relaunch and reposition a brand and product range in line with market trends. The new Garmont, in addition to researching and prototyping new product lines, has structured its 2015/2017 business plan with the clear intent of further stepping up export volumes by opening up new markets through distributors and subsidiaries.

“This equity operation”, explained Giorgio Grosso, president of Veneto Sviluppo Spa, “is a further step forward in the strenuous defense of Italian, and in particular, Veneto design which for decades has played a key role within the international sport system industry. We chose to invest in a “restart” of the new Garmont, supporting and sharing the challenges with the new president Bressan, to continue in our mission of defending and relaunching unique regional know‐how and talent safeguarding employment, research and technology”.

“We’re proud to have ended our first financial year (December 31, 2014) with a positive financial result and to have already reached our 2015 turnover objective, considering our orders in house for delivery within end of the year,” declared Pierangelo Bressan, president of Garmont International Srl. “The opening of a North American subsidiary and its three‐year development plan will be decisive for the relaunch of our brand. These new financial resources from Veneto Sviluppo will support this important effort.”