Company History

Not only does the story of this company risen in Stra in 1898 by means of Giovanni Luigi Voltan (1873-1941) represent the course of an entrepreneurial family now fourth generation, but it also merges with the story of the Riviera del Brenta industrial zone itself. The last, is one of the most qualified worldwide centers for footwear production.

Towards the end of the last century, Stra was a little country village of the venetian hinterland affected, like many others, by the agricultural crisis. Emigration, especially towards the United States that were having a considerable industrial boom, seemed to be the only alternative to unemployment. Mr. Voltan left too, and, after wandering for a while, he reached Boston.

At that time, Boston was one of the most important areas of the country for shoe production. The United States footwear production was very much industrialized; it was characterized by a considerable division of the production cycle, and particularly by a substantial mechanization of the various manifacturing phases. Mr. Voltan happened to be hired by one of this big companies. He worked in different departments and, in this way, he surely learned to master the serialized production process, but he also reached the conviction that if he had imported these techniques into Italy he would have been able to set up his own business, and evenmake a fortune. Mr. Voltan probably did not get to the bottom of it, but his decision to go back to Stra in 1898 bringing with him some machinery given him by his employer, was a real transfer of technology.

Obviously, this gave him many advantages over more traditional Italian shoe makers who were still bond to manual production. Sewing machinesfor leather and hides put on the market by Singer were beginning to spread throughout Italy, but these same machines were a simple help for the manifactoring, instead of a main factor for the productive process. Thus, the few shoe factories existed at that time were but a paid organization of the traditional craft.

Voltan’s intuition was successful. Indeed, he started up his ownworkshop in his native village and, together with the American machinery, he also got some other German equipment, so that in 1904 he already employed between 400 and 500 workers (partly seasoned workers), and they produced about one thousand shoes a day. The mechanization of some phases of the cycle (some were and are still manual) allowed him to cut down on expenditure, and this, of course, was to the advantage of the consumer-price, in ths way, he prooved he had well understood the American mass marketing methods. It was a strategic choice. Borrowing from the American experience, he also create his own retail sales network that, without intermediation and with a competitive price, persuaded the Italian consumer to accept mass-produced footwear. Before the First World War he had already opened some poimt of sale, and, in the twenties, the last were 35. These stores were distributed in various cities of northern and central Italy; they represented an uncommon entrepreneurial dynamism in a context where modern salesmanships had difficulty in being accepted and established. After Giovanni Luigi, his son Emanuele took turn in running the company, and, afterwards, his nephew Giovanni together with his two sons Emanuele and Marco.

The quick growth of the Voltan footwear factory was an example to imitate for many others, and it was the basis for the development of the Riviera del Brenta footwear district. If things had not gone this way, the Voltan factory would have been considered just as one among others in a Veneto characterized by a period of transition from agriculture to industry.

The Voltan footwear company (at present its trademark is Voltan 1898 as a memorial of its origine) is quickly reaching the 40 billions lire turnover which is invested to a great extent into the international market.