Luxury boss Brunello Cucinelli feeds his employees well, and wants them to go home at 5.30 pm

A June 2020 photo of a Brunello Cucinelli shop window in Japan. The luxury brand is donating millions worth of unsold inventory. (Photo by Leirus Yat Shung via Wikimedia Commons CC 4.0)

Not many luxury brands are known to be humanitarian. They may pay lip service to issues and do cursory CSR, but at heart, many are mercenary slave drivers. Brunello Cucinelli, the Italian maker of fine clothes, has for decades been an exception to the jerk CEO, and zealously prioritized work-leisure balance and contribution to society.

This year, the 67-year-old is donating € 30 million worth of unsold products from last year to the needy. And over the decades, he has built a library, a theatre and a school that teaches tailoring, gardening and masonry in Solomeo, a 12^th century hilltop village in Italy that is the brand’s headquarter.

“After the pain of this past year, there’s a moment for compassion, for understanding,” Cucinelli said in an interview to Monocle in March.

The culture at the company has traditionally been employee-centric. At 1 pm every day, the cafeteria at the HQ opens and staff enjoy lunch made from local produce. At 5.30 pm, everyone leaves for home.

“We need time every day to nourish our mind and our soul,” Cucinelli says. “Working in beautiful surroundings helps our creativity. In Solomeo, beauty is found in every place: the medieval castle, the agricultural heritage of the countryside. Here we can work and still stay connected to the outside world.”

2014 photo of Brunello Cucinelli in Solomeo. (Photo: Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters)

His understated luxury clothing, largely defined by ethically sourced cashmere and linen, pulls in € 500 million in annual sales. However, Cucinelli describes his approach as one with a “humanistic take on capitalism”.

“No profit should be made without valuing human dignity,” he says.

When Cucinelli was a boy, he saw his father, an humble wheat farmer, being mistreated. Such experiences typically result in the son becoming angry and ruthless, as many Amitabh Bachchan or gangster films depict. But it had the opposite effect on Cucinelli. It made him determined to treat people well.

“Until I was 15 years old, we were very needy,” he told GQ in an interview. “We had no electricity. But we lived a very serene life. And when we actually moved to the city, my father was subjected to humiliation and he was demeaned. I couldn't understand why something like this would happen. That was the beginning (of my perspective on how people should be treated).”