Italdesign It is officially on sale. The historic Italian company, an emblem of design and automotive engineering, has been put on the market by the group Volkswagenwhich is part through the control of Audi. The German giant, in fact, does not seem willing to include Italdesign in its future strategic plans, thus putting the fate of society at risk.
The company currently occupies more than 1,300 workers And in the past it has signed models that have made the history of the car such as Golf, the Alfa Romeo 159, the Fiat Panda and the great point.
The reasons for the sale
According to some rumors, the decision would be linked to the crisis that is going through the automotive sector in the transition to electricity, and in particular to the needs of liquidity of the German giant. Audi’s decision, which has controlled Italdesign since 2010 through Lamborghini, arrives in a very delicate moment for the Volkswagen group, engaged in a quick and complex transition to the mobility electricity. The goal is to replace the thermal engine in very short times. The electric car, with its advantages in terms of autonomy, silence, performance and absence of emissions, undoubtedly represents the future of the sector.
But this technological revolution has a cost. The transition to electric is generating strong employment repercussions. After investments for over 15 billion euros, Audi has already announced 7,500 redundancies. For Volkswagen, the number is even more dramatic: we talk about Over 35 thousand places at risk. In this context, the sale of assets deemed non -strategic as Italdesign is interpreted as a move to generate liquidity.
The unions complain
However, for Turin and for the whole of Italy, the sale represents a new industrial jolt, which affects a sector already hard felt by the transformation in progress.
And the unions are already on the war footing, worried about employment prospects. “Italdesign, like Lamborghini and Ducati, is an Italian excellence within the Volkswagen group, and as such it must be valued and not disintegrated-declares Samuele Lodi, national secretary of the Fiom-Cgil-. We will put on the field all the necessary actions to safeguard this design and engineering center, also through dialogue with the unions Germans. You cannot think of making the weight of the Volkswagen crisis fall on Italian workers. “
The story of Italdesign
Founded in Turin on February 13, 1968 by Giorgetto Giugiaro And Aldo Mantovani, Italdesign initially was born with the name of Sirp – Italian company Construction Prototype Spa The company immediately proposed itself as an avant -garde service center for the automotive industry, tightening important collaborations with leading car manufacturers such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Hyundai and Mitsubishi.
In 1981 the company expanded its field of action with the creation of the Giugiaro Design division, dedicated to industrial design and transport. A further step forward arrives in 2003 with the birth of Giugiaro Architecture, a branch specialized in civil and industrial architectural design, interior design – also for yacht -, urban furniture, trade fair fittings and urban planning.
2010 marks a turning point in the history of the company: 90.1% of the shares are acquired by the Volkswagen AG group, which consolidates their presence in Italy. Five years later, in 2015, the definitive farewell of the Giugiaro family arrives: the remaining 10% is sold, sanctioning the complete passage of Italdesign under the control of Volkswagen Audi. Today Italdesign is a solid company, with over 250 million euros in revenues (in 2023) and the goal of reaching 300 million euros in the future as well as with a profit of around 20 million euros. The company has more than 1,200 employees.
