Marchi & Fildi Group: when sustainability meets technology

Founded in 2007 after a merger between Filatura Marchi and Fildi, two consolidated Italian spinning companies led by the Marchi and Dissegna families, the Marchi & Fildi Group is now a leading supplier on the global fashion market with a vast offer including yarns for linear and circular knitwear, weaving and hosiery. Filidea, the youthful, dynamic wing of the Group, targets its standout natural, sustainable and certified yarns at a high-end segment of the fashion market. It also specialises in the production and development of technical yarns for protective and work apparel for the automotive and general industrial sectors, identified by the Filidea Technical Yarns brand.

But innovation in the technological field promoted by the Group is not limited to the production and development of new and customised products; it also embraces its commitment to sustainability, as seen in its investments over the years in innovative plants and research into raw materials (including RCS certified Cupro Bemberg™ by Asahi Kasei). As much as 10 years ago, it installed a total of 11,385 photovoltaic modules at its 3 plants in Biella (production), Cerrione (dyeing) and Verrone (logistics), covering an overall area of 16,515 m². The balance of the operation, released by the Group after a decade, has been decidedly positive: energy cost savings of approximately 1,000,000 Euro, with a total of 22,974,828 Kwh produced, which has been used partly for self-consumption at the company and partly sold back to the grid. Add to this the Energy Savings Certificates (ESC) and the installation of LED lighting, and the end result is optimised, eco-sustainable processes.

But it is the company owners’ forward-thinking vision aimed at sharing expertise that really sets it apart. The Magnonevolo plant in Cerrione, which is currently being radically restructured, is set to become a multifunctional facility, as well as hosting the Group’s dyeing and R&D departments. This centre has been designed as a compact plant where all phases of the textile supply chain can be reproduced. This allows it not only to develop the Group’s in-house collections but also, and above all, to forge research partnerships with customers, brands and schools. The plant will also soon be the base for the MagnoLab project, which will bring together various textile companies, each with different skills in the supply chain, in a spirit of pooling strengths and results in order to boost research in the textile/clothing world. The facility already houses several laboratories of the renowned ITS TAM (a higher technical institute specialising in textile, clothing and fashion), where 150/200 students learn every day about real-world industry at the same time as studying the theoretical side.

The Group’s crowning glory is without doubt its dyeing facility, which has been designed as a high-automation, high energy-saving industrial plant with a consequently lower environmental impact. From the sustainability point of view, the facility’s main characteristic is its ability to dye spooled yarns in horizontal vats. Compared with conventional dyeing, this method uses less water throughout the process (about 47% less), thus saving energy as less water has to be heated, with the added benefit of higher colour reproducibility compared to industry standards.

Lastly, it is impossible not to mention Ecotec®, the Group’s exclusive production process for creating new yarns from pre- and post-consumer waste. Ecotec® yarns, a virtuous example of the circular economy, have a particularly low environmental impact thanks to energy saving, lower greenhouse gas emissions and lower water consumption in the production chain. A winning result that demonstrates the commitment of the Group, now in its third generation, to the community and to safeguarding the environment and the local territory for future generations.