Patrizia Pepe and Dixie placed under judicial administration over subcontractor labour exploitation

Judicial administration for two brands

The Florence prevention court, acting on a request from the Prato prosecutor's office, has placed Tessilform spa and Dixie srl under judicial administration for one year. Tessilform owns the Patrizia Pepe brand and is based in Campi Bisenzio, while Dixie is registered in Signa, both in the Florence area. According to the court, the two companies culpably facilitated labour exploitation by failing to supervise or verify whether their subcontractors had real business capacity. Some of those subcontractors used off-the-books workers and staff who lacked valid residence permits. The measure is not a conviction, and neither brand is under investigation.

How the workshops operated

The inquiry was carried out by the Guardia di Finanza together with the ASL Toscana Centro health authority. Investigators traced a network of firms linked to a pair of Albanian entrepreneurs, who are under investigation for illegal intermediation and labour exploitation. Among the companies examined are Re-Stiro, which specialises in ironing, and Alba srl, now in liquidation. Prosecutors described inadequate pay, exhausting shifts, denied holidays and rest, unsuitable collective contracts and falsified payslips, all accompanied by constant abuse, violence and physical control of the workers. According to the prosecution, the workers were mostly Albanian and Bengali, and Pakistani workers were also employed. Eighteen exploited workers cooperated with the investigation, and prosecutors requested residence permits for them on justice grounds.

The money and the companies' response

Prosecutors argued that the arrangement gave the brands wide profit margins by cutting labour costs and compressing expenses. The prosecution's wording on the system reads as follows.

“a production system based on maximising profit, which allowed wide profit margins, cutting labour costs, compressing expenses and maintaining a high level of competitiveness.”

Investigators calculated that the arrangement brought the exploiting organisation about 500,000 euros, and that the two brands obtained lower prices and shorter production times. Tessilform said in a statement that the measure is preventive rather than sanctioning and carries no criminal charge against the company. The company added that it has had no relationship with the firms under investigation for more than a year, and that the measure aims to strengthen control over its supply chain.

A wider pattern and earlier violence

The Prato case follows a similar pattern in Milan, where prosecutor Paolo Storari told the Sustainable Fashion Forum in Venice about his requests for judicial administration of brands including Armani, Dior, Valentino and Loro Piana. Those brands are accused of benefiting from exploitation in Chinese workshops that produced for them. The Prato office had earlier applied the same measure to Piazza Italia. The network also has a violent history: in September 2025, workers at the Alba ironing business in Montemurlo were attacked outside the plant while protesting with the Sudd Cobas union over their conditions.

What the measure means now

The administration of Tessilform and Dixie runs for one year, during which the court has ordered the companies to reinforce controls over their suppliers. The brands have not been charged with a crime, and the court treats them as parties foreign to the facts under investigation. The prosecution's case rests on the two Albanian entrepreneurs and the network of firms they ran.