Internet Throws Lifeline to Family Businesses in Small Town in Italy’s South.
Soveria Mannelli now has a thriving, medium-size publishing house, a leading school furniture manufacturer and an ancient wool mill, all run by families that have been able to maintain their roots here by updating their businesses to accommodate the digital era.
Camillo Sirianni, a third-generation family business that began as a mechanized carpentry company in 1909, has also overcome the isolation of its hometown to become a leading manufacturer of school furniture. In a high-tech warehouse on the outskirts of town, the company today assembles thousands of colorful desks, benches, closets and other accessories made from Calabrian beech that are shipped across the globe, from the United Kingdom to the United Arab Emirates, from Central America to Polynesia.
