Interview with Dr Giovanni Marchi, Director of the Marchi & Fildi Group:

Marchi & Fildi was born in 2007 through the fusion of the two companies Filatura Marchi and Filatura Fildi. The international spinning group has its origins in Biella, Italy, where it was founded in 1969 and where its headquarters are still located today. Since 2019, Marchi & Fildi is a member of the Bremen Cotton Exchange.

The Bremen Cotton Report editorial team spoke with Dr Giovanni Marchi, Director of the Marchi & Fildi Group about the special challenges of recycled yarns, circular economy and the need for constant innovation.

Bremen Cotton Report: As a European spinning mill, what makes Marchi & Fildi so successful?

Dr Giovanni Marchi: Marchi & Fildi is an international spinning group and we produce yarn for several end uses: for fashion, furnishing, automotive, protective wear. We have several spinning facilities in foreign countries and each facility is specialized on a production field. We decided to keep the production of our Marchi & Fildi and Ecotec® range in Italy, inside our headquarters. There we are strongly focused on the production of recycled yarns, mainly dedicated to the fashion industry. Our yarns are very well known, thanks to our over 50-year tradition in the spinning sector; the wide shade cards, the high stock service and the rapidity of the deliveries are the main focus of our brands.

Another important topic is sustainable innovation: we have a R&D department that is dedicated at 360°to innovation in textiles, both for our own collections and for “tailor made projects” developed together with partners and customers. Each side of our activity is strongly related to sustainability: solar panels, a new dyeing mill, our Ecotec® range are just some examples of how we have always been implementing the attention to the environment in our everyday activity.

With your ECOTEC® product, you offer yarns that come from recycled textile waste. What makes these yarns so special?

Ecotec® is the innovative production process developed by Marchi & Fildi that creates new yarns upcycling pre- and post-consumer textile waste. The Ecotec® process is a virtuous example of circular economy: it allows to give new life to fibers and create new yarns with an added value of sustainability. We have also our own Ecotec® range of yarns, that are identified by the same production technology.

We started with pre-consumer cotton clippings coming from the knitting industry for example. Then we were able to apply the same technology also to other fibers and to special projects developed together with partners/customers.

One of the most important topics about Ecotec® is the reduced impact on the environment. According to the LCA study made on our quality Polaris (blend of recycled cotton with virgin cotton), our yarns reduce the impact on the environment in a meaningful and quantifiable way. Here are the records:

• Energy savings up to 46,9%
• Reduction on greenhouse effect up to 46,6%
• Reduce water consumption throughout the complete process up to 61,6%

To what extent do your yarns come from post-consumer textile waste? Are there any special issues with the different types of fibers such as cotton, wool, or polyester?

The Ecotec® technology was developed starting with pre-consumer cotton. Thanks to our experience and our know-how that we have been developing for many years, we started with new developments in order to expand our knowledge, our know-how and also our range of products, for example with post-consumer wool. Each fiber has its own features that should be considered during the whole process, from the arrival of raw materials to mechanical recycling till spinning and the fibers blending. The topic of supply chain is very crucial in this sector, in order to guarantee the best knowledge for example of our suppliers and the best quality of the raw materials.

Moreover another important focus is based on the certifications and on the possibility to trace the history of each lot, we pay much attention to this topic, in order to guarantee first of all the health of the final customer and then also any argument related to sustainability.

Circular economy is currently a trend topic, Marchi & Fildi has been researching this for 20 years. What are the greatest challenges and where is the greatest potential in this area?

Actually our group has been recycling fibers from the very early beginning of our activity, so much more than 20 years. We immediately understood the importance of developing this activity and find a solution for textile waste, that have a very strong impact on the environment, also from the point of view of the use of resources. As already stated before, our experience and our know- how allowed us to develop our own technology, to improve it and to make it available for companies, partners or brands who want to proceed with a project of recycling.

Circular economy is a trend topic at the moment, the most important issue, according to us, is the possibility to guarantee concrete and real information and avoid green washing. What we have been doing from the very early beginning is to guarantee our process for every step of the supply chain up to the end, the final customer. A lot of projects have started in the last years about blockchain and we are part of the Trick project.

What role does cotton play in your products? What characteristics do you value most?

Cotton has a very important role in our collections, also blended with other fibers. We have been speaking about mechanically recycled cotton through our own Ecotec® technology, that is GRS certified. We also have GOTS cottons in our Filidea collections for example. One of the most important features according to us is the possibility to guarantee the highest level of our products to our customers (knitters, weavers) and with this goal we care a lot about the selection of raw materials.

Certifications and any argument related to sustainability stays at the base of our collections.

Thank you for the interview!

Find out more about Marchi & Fildi

The interviews in the column “Question Time“ embody the opinion of the respective interview partner and do not represent the position of the Bremen Cotton Exchange as neutral, independent institution.