The Story
1975 – 1990: The beginnings
Year 1975. Exena’s historical roots go back a long way, so far back that the company, as we know it today, did not exist at all. Alfio Cicchinè, at that time, was a boy who worked every day in the family business, an artisan shoe factory that introduced him to the world of footwear production.
The Marche region, at that time, had become famous in Italy and around the world for the great skill of the companies that populated the Fermano-Maceratese footwear district. Know-how, theoretical and technical skills, ideas and intuitions were shared, and all these intangible assets concretised the success of footwear companies from the Marche region in that decade. Young Alfio is aware of the potential of his trade, but the context of the family business is not in line with his expectations and vision: what is missing on the market is an adequate shoe to protect oneself at work. This is why he decided to take a gamble with himself and, together with his partners at the time, he opened a contract manufacturing business for one of the most important companies of the time, with the aim of concentrating solely on the production of uppers and further increasing his already extensive stock of specific skills. This was followed by 15 years of intensive work that were to be the necessary foundations for what would, long afterwards, be his creation: the Exena company.
1991 – 1998: Between challenges and opportunities
After the successful experience outside the ‘domestic’ walls, an unprecedented scenario opened up for Alfio: the client company he was working for began a policy of production off-shoring and moved part of the production line to the Balkans, to Albania. As a consequence of this company policy, Alfio, together with some of the partners, decides to make a diversion to Romania, a change of scenery but only geographical, since the main occupation still remains the production of uppers. At least until about twenty-five years ago, when the opportunity arose to acquire a direct injection machine for uppers. The injection machine in question was a real high-risk investment, as the entire production process associated with it was pioneering and very different from the traditional one. In spite of the initial uncertainty, thanks to orders already won from many industrial commissioning partners, the company went from being a simple shoe upper maker to a manufacturer of finished shoes.
The simultaneous growth of the reference market and the support of the historical client companies represent an essential precondition in the process of growth and consolidation of the embryo from which the future company will be generated. The entrepreneurial spirit and desire for success, the favourable macroeconomic context of the early 1990s, and the long-term relationship with important and recognised brands were equally important concomitant conditions that prepared the ground for the exploit. The real turning point, however, was to shift the focus to injected safety footwear, which was particularly in demand in foreign markets (both European and non-European), market contexts in which the culture of specific footwear for work use was already widespread and well rooted. The understandable initial hesitancy in Alfio was overwhelmed by the desire to create something new, a wide-ranging business project rather than a simple dependence on external commissions. A powerful trigger that ignites the incendiary mix of favourable conditions, the ideal fuel for a real turning point. This turning point has a name, and it is the one first coined and registered in 1998: the turning point is called Exena Srl.
1999 – 2010: The turning point, Exena in Italy and the World
Alfio and his partners are the founding fathers now at the helm of a start-up with more than twenty years of experience behind it. The new company mission is to create safety footwear like never before. It was a widespread belief, especially in the Italian market, that work shoes were exclusively ‘construction site’ shoes, with basic features, standardised colours, rough shapes and no particular attention to comfort and style. Exena, in the idea of Alfio and partners, intends to propose something different and unprecedented: the work shoe must be a service product with excellent performance, but it must be identified and distinguished by its aesthetic and technologically advanced soul. To do this, a substantial paradigm shift is required, which affects the way of working at Exena at all levels, from Research & Development to Production and Sales. The difference with the past is both formal and substantial: the transition between external orders and own-brand production is initially imperceptible, but constant and gradual over time. The first important orders began to arrive, followed by a series of investments made, for the first time in history, by the newly founded company. In 2002 the first injection moulding machine was installed, and in 2005 the first high-profile orders from foreign customers arrived, both within the European Union and beyond. The turnover, after not even a decade, breaks through the 10 million Euro threshold: the Exena brand is now a solid reality in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, England, Hungary, Benelux and Poland. Alfio is now at the helm of a multinational company.
2011 – 2023: Expansion, innovation, consolidation
Nowadays, Exena is light years away from its initial form. It has a name and a brand, a certified organisational structure, an extended and consolidated value chain, a headquarters – in Civitanova Marche – that is the flagship of the founders. The generational change has brought fresh forces into the company staff and has allowed it to embark on a path of innovation with the strength and enthusiasm of newcomers under the wise guidance of the more experienced. Whereas until a few years ago a single person carried out several tasks, today the organisational chart is much more extensive: the Exena family has expanded considerably and now has more than 30 direct employees, not counting all the partners involved in the production and supply chain.
Over the past fifteen years, growth has been exponential and all-round: new, highly successful product lines have been introduced, including X-Light (the ultra-light line under the Exena brand in 2011), Spring (the first line dedicated entirely to the health and food sector in 2014) and Air Balance (the first line in sharp contrast to the past), stock capacity was increased exponentially to improve service, and partnerships have been set up to increase production capacity in various foreign countries, including Albania, Romania and Ukraine. In 2015, the acquisition of SafeWay brand, specialised in the Ho.Re.Ca, food industry, hôtellerie and health-care sectors, represented an important step in the company’s homogeneous differentiation path towards other market segments related to the world of occupational safety. The natural consequence of all this was that turnover figures tripled in little more than a decade.
2024: Safety runs
Today, Exena is racing towards the future with clear ideas and tools consolidated through years of experience, projects and goals. The guidelines can be summarised in a few concepts, as simple as they are challenging: combine Italian style and design with the technical performance essential for a work shoe, without ever losing sight of the drive for product and process innovation. Last but certainly not least, to maintain a high quality/price ratio, both through the punctual monitoring of all the essential phases of design and production, and through the utmost care and attention towards current and potential customers.
The strategic recipe for facing the challenges and opportunities of the new millennium is inspired by the concept of movement, as the payoff suggests: we face daily operations with dynamism, because change is the secret to evolving and prospering. In recent years, the changes have been many and far-reaching: Exena is now an ISO 9001, ISO 14001 certified company and, as of 2022, new cutting-edge product lines have been introduced, such as Levity-X, and the production of the Thunder (in polyurethane) and Nitro (in PVC and nitrile rubber) safety boots lines has been internalised (and made 100% Made in Italy). Today, change passes through the digitisation of internal processes to improve and optimise relations with customers, suppliers and partners of all kinds. The future is already here: the new headquarters in Civitanova Marche is the new milestone, the only static landmark that allows Exena to keep moving, to evolve, to run towards the next challenges.
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