How did you get in touch with Tollegno 1900?
I’ve been the HK office sales director at Lora & Festa for many years and in 2010 Tollegno 1900 and Lora & Festa Cashmere decided to merge together their strengths to develop the HK and China Market. Since I started to work in this field the name “Lana Gatto” has always been a well-known brand in HK. I knew a lot about Tollegno 1900 even before we started to cooperate.
What are the strengths of the company in your opinion?
Italian know-how on dyeing, spinning, quality control, and service.
How is Tollegno 1900 considered in your country and what is appreciated?
Our clients are the quality oriented. They know that Tollegno 1900 brings the high quality products to the market especially with prompt response to the demand of the market like in the recent years the introduction in their line of high performance qualities such as  Harmony 4.0 (Eco/Water Repellency/ Compact Spinning),
Why is it important to have an operational headquarters also in your country?
People like to talk and touch the yarn in this business and speaking the same language is very important, it is a very good service to be always able to run over a customer whenever is needed. It is important to be able to constantly contact them, reminding them the characteristics of Tollegno 1900’s yarn explaining and talking to them thoroughly. That’s why you need to keep in touch with them tightly. Prompt response is the other key element for sales & operational activities and also after-sales service, for example when a customer needs advise on how to best use of our yarns.  There is a time lag between Europe and HK of 6 to 7 hours. Having a direct operational office in HK helps to connect with the customers when the western countries are still asleep.
Has the pandemic changed the approach of customers and if so, how?
It was chaos at the first few months because no one knew anything about the virus. Now everybody is much  calmer since we understood we can protect ourselves by wearing mask, using  more on public and personal hygiene, and of course the introduction of the vaccines.Fortunately the pick of the COVID-19 cases didn’t last long in HK. During the worse time we had to work using the phone, and if necessary, with face-time or Zoom meeting. Right now we are back to visit the customers so that we can show them our collections and show them in person.
 Based on your experience, what is important to customers right now?
Some countries are still experiencing the increase of number of COVID-19 cases, with the virus mutant, I believe it will take at least one more year to be back to normal. In this case, clients prefer lowering the garment stocks of their warehouses & placing the additional orders based on the sales situation on styles/colors. This is the opinion reflected by clients when visiting them. Large range of stock service and fast production lead time are the trend and demand from the market. Even our clients are not the price-oriented, the pressure on the sales in this pandemic causes our client considering and asking more discount on the price. Besides the quality, clients are asking something more which could help them to promote and make the products different from the other competitors. Innovative yarn is what they are interested in.
