Brunello Cucinelli, Founder and Chairman of the Cashmere House Based in Solomeo

Brunello Cucinelli is the founder, Executive Chairman and Creative Director of Brunello Cucinelli S.p.A., the Italian luxury company best known for cashmere. He started the business in 1978 and has run it from the village of Solomeo, in Umbria, since 1982.

His company closed 2025 with revenue of about 1.41 billion euros, up 11.5 percent at constant exchange rates. Cucinelli has also become known for an approach he calls contemporary humanistic capitalism, which ties profit to the dignity of the people who work for the company.

Education

Cucinelli qualified as a surveyor and then enrolled in engineering, but he did not complete the degree, according to his biography on the company’s investor site.

Since then several Italian universities have given him honorary degrees, starting with the University of Perugia in 2010.

Career

In 1978 Cucinelli founded a small company that became known for dyeing cashmere. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy notes that the business started out selling cashmere sweaters.

In 1982 he moved the business to Solomeo, a small hilltop village in Umbria that was to become its permanent base. Three years later, in 1985, he bought the 14th-century castle in the village to house the company’s headquarters.

The company grew beyond the castle in 2000, when Cucinelli acquired a factory in the valley below Solomeo and adapted it for production. He has written that the restoration of the village took about 30 years and kept its identity, with only a few new buildings added.

Those buildings include a theatre, which the company describes as “a secular temple of the arts designed to last 3 centuries”, a Forum of the Arts and a Neohumanistic Academy.

In 2012 the company was listed on the Milan Stock Exchange. Cucinelli kept the roles of chairman and creative director, and the business is now run day to day by two chief executives.

In 2013 he set up the School of Advanced Contemporary Craftsmanship in Solomeo to train artisans. In 2018 the Project for Beauty was carried out in Solomeo through a foundation that bears the Cucinelli name.

In 2025 the company completed its 2024 to 2026 plan for artisanal Made in Italy production six months early. It invested about 145 million euros to expand the Solomeo headquarters and open new tailoring and outerwear workshops in Gubbio and Penne. The spending equalled roughly 10.5 percent of that year’s revenue.

Current Roles

• Executive Chairman, Brunello Cucinelli S.p.A.
• Creative Director, Brunello Cucinelli S.p.A.
• Member of the Board of Directors, Brunello Cucinelli S.p.A.

Key Achievements

A cashmere maker turned listed luxury group

From a small cashmere workshop in 1978, the company has become a listed group with its own boutiques around the world. At the end of 2025 it ran 136 directly managed boutiques and 57 concessions inside luxury department stores. Demand for such brands is also spreading to newer markets, including the Kingdom, as our report on Saudi Arabia as the Middle East’s new luxury retail destination sets out.

• Founded: 1978
• Listed on the Milan Stock Exchange: 2012
• Directly managed boutiques: 136 (end of 2025)
• Concessions in department stores: 57 (end of 2025)

Steady double-digit growth

The company reported revenue of 1,278.4 million euros in 2024, up 12.2 percent, and then about 1.41 billion euros in 2025. In both years growth beat the forecasts the company had given at the start of the year.

In 2024 the Americas were the largest region with 476.5 million euros, ahead of Europe with 456.5 million euros and Asia with 345.4 million euros. For 2026 the company has guided to growth of around 10 percent.

• Revenue: 1,278.4 million euros (2024)
• Revenue: about 1.41 billion euros (2025)
• Net profit: 142.0 million euros, up 10.5 percent (2025)
• Operating result: close to 236 million euros (2025)

Humanistic capitalism in practice

Cucinelli describes his aim as the moral and economic dignity of the human being, with a balance between fair growth and fair profit. He also says he prefers the idea of universalism to that of globalisation. In Solomeo the working day begins at 8:00 and ends by 5:30 in the afternoon, with a long lunch break and limits on work email after hours and at weekends.

An international prize for an Italian business

In 2017 the Kiel Institute for the World Economy gave him its Global Economy Prize, citing him as an example of the “honourable merchant”. The institute noted that he employed about 1,000 families in Umbria at the time, and put the company’s yearly sales at around 400 million euros, less than a third of the level it reached in 2025.

The Company in Numbers

• Revenue: about 1.41 billion euros, up 11.5 percent at constant exchange rates (2025)
• Net profit: 142.0 million euros (2025)
• Investments: 146.2 million euros, about 10.4 percent of turnover (2025)
• Share of sales from retail: 67.3 percent (2025)
• Revenue growth by region: Americas 11.9 percent, Europe 8.1 percent, Asia 15.3 percent (2025)
• Proposed dividend: 1.04 euros per share (for 2025)

Awards and Honours

• Cavaliere del Lavoro, appointed by the President of the Italian Republic (2010)
• Honorary degree, University of Perugia (2010)
• Global Economy Prize, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (2017)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2018)
• Honorary PhD in Philosophy, University of Messina (2018)
• GQ Designer of the Year, London (2021)
• Honorary PhD in Management, Banking and Commodity Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome (2022)
• Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion (2023)
• WWD John B. Fairchild Honor (2024)
• Outstanding Achievement Award, British Fashion Awards (2025)

In Their Own Words

Presenting preliminary 2025 sales in January 2026, Cucinelli said, as quoted by FashionUnited: “We have closed what we consider a record year, both in terms of revenue and brand image.”

When the company published its 2024 sales in January 2025, he said: “For both 2025 and 2026, we envisage a gracious, healthy, and sustainable revenue growth of around 10 percent.”

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