Panther srl, headquartered in Bovolenta (Padua province) and owning factories in three European countries, confirms itself as a leader in the safety sector. The 40-year milestone has been achieved already; the company keeps on having a future-looking attitude
“For each of your feet, 300 of our hands.” This is the captivating slogan that stands out on the home page of Panther Srl, an Italian manufacturer of safety and work shoes, headquartered in Bovolenta (Padua); under the branch Panther Albania SH.P.K. it also owns a factory for the production of uppers and other plants located in different European countries. Under the ABOUTBLU brand, the Veneto-based group provides a wide range of models to meet all workers’ needs, but above all to guarantee the best solution linked to the environment in which they work.
Among the company’s strengths, stand out a constant commitment to invest, annually, a considerable part of its turnover in R&D activities, aiming at offering increasingly comfortable and high-performance footwear. Pioneers in the safety footwear sector since the 1990s, thanks to research, the ABOUTBLU brand is currently among the most technological and ground-breaking ones. Each model is the result of study, research and tests at every level, while innovation is the synthesis of systems and solutions experimentation, also taken from other sectors, to improve performance and comfort.
To get to know this important business in the safety sector up close, we went to the headquarters, where we met Marco Dal Medico, general manager of the Group, whom we initially asked to tell the beautiful story of these first 40 years.
“The company was founded in 1982 – says Marco – thanks to the founder Rocco Cilenti, assisted by other entrepreneurs. At the beginning the company produced high-quality injected sports shoes, but at the same time it also acted as subcontractor for prestigious brands such as Reebok and Puma, a clientele that immediately guaranteed a good turnover. In the 1990s, when all the large companies began to move production to Eastern Europe, leading to a lower demand for sports shoes in Italy, Cilenti’s intuition was to reclassify the company, starting to produce safety and work shoes. The decisive year of the reconversion was 1995: immediately, the company experienced a boom, but then there was a change of ownership and the new management decided to move the production sites to Eastern Europe to focus on the fashion sector, which subsequently suffered from the decline in the global economy between the 1990s and the beginning of the new century. The middle of the first decade of the 2000s was marked by the arrival of Giovanni Cilenti, son of the founder, who led the restart together with other leading entrepreneurs in the area, including Luigi Rossi Luciani, who is the current president (and founder of Carel Spa, a company listed on the Stock Exchange). I started working in that period, too. The decisive turning point occurred in 2009 when we brought production and, above all, the company management, back to the Bovolenta headquarters.”
How did the growth trend take place?
“The strategies implemented in the second decade of the 2000s were decisive as they allowed us to win back many customers abroad, especially in Europe. The numbers tell the story: in the last 12 years we have grown from 3.5 million to 19 million euros at the end of 2022, and we already set the target of 25 million in 2025. High ambitions justified by this enormous growth. Unlike what happened in the past, when attention was mainly linked to clothing and fashion, we currently deal exclusively with the accident prevention sector, to which we destine all resources, research and product studies. Remarkable investments concern the current restructuring of the headquarters in Bovolenta and the acquisition of a new warehouse.”
Your group also carries out several investments abroad. What can you tell us about it?
“Throughout our history we have always had an all-round attitude, that led us to look also outside Italy, even if now ‘heart and mind’ are here. The plant in Albania is strategic for our group, Panther Albania sh.p.k, located in the city of Vlora, produces uppers, and features 280 employees as well as a trusted Italian management, made up of managers who have worked in the headquarters for years. In the Albanian factory, the daily production is around 2,550 pairs of shoes, which is a quite considerable quantity. Other large plants abroad owned by the Group are located in Bosnia and Romania.”
How is your sales network organised?
“85% of our turnover comes from abroad and the remaining 15% from Italy. Abroad, especially in Europe but also in Canada, Singapore, North Africa, Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), we sell to large distributors. We have been updating and improving distribution in some areas for a couple of years, with the aim of directly serving points of sale, especially in Germany, Great Britain and France. This type of strategy, linked directly to the point of sale, is actually the same method we already carry out in Italy. In our country, we are doing branding in various ways, even with tv commercials, especially during important global sporting events, such as Formula 1, MotoGP and international tennis cups. We are a ‘Made in Italy’ brand, appreciated all over the world; thanks to this strategy, never implemented in the past, there has been a significant turning point.”
What other strategies have you implemented to do branding?
Stefania Mellone, marketing manager replies: “Branding today means having the ability to coordinate all the tools and channels available and create synergy. Investments in recent years have grown steadily also in marketing; today corporate communication is complex and made up of different projects. In addition to the highly followed social channels, we have renewed the advertising campaigns on SKY and TV8; we keep our presence in trade magazines and national newspapers, we have increased our presence in national and international trade fairs, both B2B and B2C. This year we will attend the Health&Safety in the UK, Preventica Paris, Safety Expo in Bergamo and finally A+A in Düsseldorf and ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi in October. We have other important promotional events on the agenda both in Italy and abroad. Obviously, the image in the stores has been renewed also thanks to the restyling of the ABOUTBLU logo.
No less important are sponsorships: they are not activities aimed directly at brand awareness, but at the image that we are proud to link to the excellence of the territory. We are supporters of 2 masters held by the University of Ca Foscari in Venice, one relating to safety and training of prevention managers, the other aimed at environmental protection. Both are very important topics dear to our business and related to our corporate philosophy. We are also for the second consecutive year among the sponsors of the Padova volleyball team, we share the same values of passion and willpower; each, with their own role, contributes to the growth and achievement of goals just like during a championship. All these activities have a single goal: to communicate the benefits of ABOUTBLU footwear.”
In this regard, what is Panther’s answer instead?
“As a company, we are totally oriented towards product quality, research and technology. We have recently established an important collaboration with a staff of posturologists and podiatrists, who carried out tests by means of innovative technological tools such as Cryovizion and the Baropodometric Platform and have scientifically proven that ABOUTBLU footwear creates the best conditions for postural well-being throughout the working day, preventing asymmetrical muscle tension and promoting a general improvement in posture, bringing benefits in terms of stability, functionality, ergonomics and performance.
ABOUTBLU by PANTHERSAFETY.IT
The Panther team at the latest edition of Expoprotection in Paris.
From the left: Stefania Mellone, marketing manager; Maurizio Greggio, production manager; Marco Dal Medico, general manager; Daniele Menin, sales manager
PANTHER SAFETY – SAFETY WITHOUT COMPROMISES
Research, quality and design
The Panther line is designed in order to meet the workers’ needs in hard and dangerous work contexts and extreme weather conditions. Thanks to exclusive technologies and high-quality materials, this high-performance footwear looks resistant and robust and is at the same time very comfortable.
