The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1911–2024
Trussardi dressed Italy for a century — then the family lost the house in a crisis
Trussardi grew from glove maker to $530M luxury house. Two family deaths in four years led to a crisis, restructuring, and the sale to Miroglio Group.
Trussardi · Quattro R · Miroglio Group · 2023-12-31
What happened
Trussardi was founded in 1911 by Dante Trussardi as a leather glove workshop in Bergamo, Italy. The company supplied gloves to the Italian army during World War II and remained a modest family business for decades. Everything changed in 1970 when Nicola Trussardi took over. He transformed the glove maker into a global luxury brand — launching ready-to-wear, fragrances, eyewear, and interiors. By 1996, Trussardi had $530 million in turnover, 120 stores worldwide, and the iconic Italian greyhound logo was recognised internationally.
The family tragedy began in 1999 when Nicola Trussardi died suddenly. His son Francesco, then 26, became chairman. Just four years later, in 2003, Francesco also died. His sister Beatrice took over as president and CEO at age 33. The brand that Nicola had built from nothing now had two of its three leaders dead within four years, and the third was thrust into a role she had not been prepared for.
Beatrice led Trussardi through the 2010s as the brand's stature gradually diminished. In 2019, asset manager Quattro R acquired 60% of the company. In 2023, Trussardi entered crisis restructuring at the Milan Court — the board resigned and the CEO departed. In March 2024, Miroglio Group acquired the brand. The house that had dressed Italy for 113 years was now owned by a rival Italian fashion group.
Why it happened
- Nicola Trussardi was the brand — he transformed a glove workshop into a $530M house by force of vision, and when he died there was no second leader with comparable experience or ambition.
- Francesco's death in 2003, four years after Nicola, created a vacuum Beatrice could not fill alone — two sudden deaths meant two generations of succession planning were lost at once.
- Trussardi's 1990s growth was built on aggressive licensing — the $1.4B Japan deal was for the name, not the product — and when those relationships faded, no owned brand could support the structure.
- Quattro R's 2019 acquisition cost the family control without solving the problem — an ageing brand with no breakthrough product and customers who remembered Nicola but had no reason to buy it today.
The lesson
A family business where both father and son die within four years is an estate not yet divided. Trussardi survived 24 years without its founder but never found the leadership to replace him.
Aftermath
Trussardi was acquired by Miroglio Group in March 2024 and operates as an independent brand under CEO Alberto Racca. The family that built it from a Bergamo glove workshop no longer controls it. The Italian greyhound logo still appears, but the $530M empire Nicola built is now one label among many. The brand's 113-year run as a family-owned Italian institution ended not with a dramatic bankruptcy but with the quieter end of a succession crisis nobody in the family was prepared to manage.
Sources
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