Blumarine was bought, halved and relaunched — six years on, production is ending

Blumarine, founded in Carpi in 1977 by Anna Molinari and Gianpaolo Tarabini, was one of Italy's glamour labels — until it wasn't. By 2019 the parent Blufin was posting losses above €14 million against €33 million of consolidated turnover. In November 2019 Marco Marchi, founder of Liu Jo, took control through his holding, promising a restart and even an IPO within two years.

The restart began with cuts. In March 2020 Blumarine opened a collective dismissal procedure targeting roughly half of its 97 staff, of whom 74 sat in Carpi and 23 in Milan. Marchi called it 'a painful cut, but necessary to restart'. The IPO never came; instead the brand was folded deeper into Marchi's orbit, and in December 2023 he declared that Liu Jo had 'taken Blumarine out of anonymity'.

The arithmetic kept deteriorating. In the spring of 2025 individual exits began; on 1 January 2026 the shops and outlets branch was transferred out of Blufin into the holding Exelite. Then, reported on 18 January 2026, came the final step: Blufin will cease all production activity within months, and the roughly 20 remaining workers go onto the extraordinary wage-guarantee fund, with a voluntary-exit procedure opened.

What survives is a label and a licensing future. The company that made the clothes will not.