The Gold of Naples
Twenty-six years ago, sustainability was an unfamiliar word to most, but not in Via Grande Orefici, Naples, the historical headquarters of Fratelli Dinacci. The company, now in its third generation, was founded about a century ago by Giovanni Dinacci, father of Salvatore and grandfather of Flavio, Alessandro and Tiziana, now respectively administrator, head of analysis and sales, of what has become a company of international standing.
At the beginning, Dinacci operated in the production and sale of exclusively 18-carat, cast and assay metal mountings and, for a quarter of a century, to recovering scrap from jewellery factories and workshops. Because of, or rather, thanks to, this “cumbersome” activity, the headquarters moved to the Tarì center where it is still the only company out of the 400 in the Marcianise goldsmith district that deals in this particular green segment.
Flavio Dinacci makes this his point of pride. «Our gold recovery is 100% sustainable because we do not use pollutants and we ask our customers not to use plastics. We were among the founding members of Tarì and to date, almost all the companies registered there are our customers. However, our core business is still the production of 100% made-in-Italy gold jewellery mountings, 60% of which is destined for the domestic market, with a portfolio of around 1,500 customers.
Compared to Grandpa Giovanni’s time, things have changed a lot: we now have technology to help us, to fine-tune details and speed up timing. A distinguishing feature is the consistency in everything we have always done: we have not succumbed to the idea of producing finished jewellery. Instead, we are well-rooted to the idea of continuing to specialize in mountings.
At the age of 19, when my father had the foresight to make me the administrator, I already knew that we needed to be faithful to the initial mission and open up to foreign markets. I started going to the International fairs of New York, Hong Kong, Basel and sending out catalogues to customers: we quickly gained hundreds. Our motto is that “with us, rather than spend, customers invest in our mountings”. Over the years we have also “ventured” into a series of marketing activities that are, to say the least, particular. For example, the One Million Dollar Summer Suit made with Yamamay in 2013 for Miss Universe with 250 carats of precious stones and 500 grams of gold, the collection of jewellery furniture by Chateau d’Ax and the diamond costume produced for Jaked for their celebrity representative, Federica Pellegrini, that I personally presented to her at the World Championships in Rome. A champion swimmer who is the pride of Italy around the world and therefore the ideal person to represent our spirit.»
Lorenza Scalisi, Editor VO+
