The Italian group Calzedonia has announced yesterday that they are taking part in the fight against COVID-19 by putting their textile factories and ressources at the service of producing hospital masks and gowns. An operation strongly desired by the group’s chairman, Sandro Veronesi, who has been particularly sensitive to his employees, customers and the situation as a whole since the beginning of the crisis.

At his request, all sales outlets were closed a few weeks ago in the red zones and then throughout Italy, in anticipation of government decrees. The closures then continued in several European countries such as France, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. The factories converted to the production of masks and gowns will be those in Avio, Trento (northern Italy), Gissi, Abruzzo (central Italy), and those based in Croatia.

This rapid reconversion of the factories has been made possible thanks to the purchase of special machines for the creation of semi-automatic lines but also thanks to the employees who have undergone dedicated training. This new structure will allow the production of 10,000 masks per day in the initial phase but an increase is expected in the coming weeks. The first masks were donated to the Verona Hospital and the Municipality of Verona on Monday.