Torcitura di Dolzago

a century-long experience in the silk world

Origins

Trinca silkworm factory

The company, founded by Sir Antonio Trinca in 1885 at Sernaglia Della Battaglia, Veneto, used to deal with silkworm rearing, the first step of silk production. Bombyx Mori eggs (silkworm eggs) were carefully selected and used for sericulture.

The founder Antonio Trinca, born in 1868, attended Scuola Tecnica Governativa di Treviso and Regia Stazione Bacologica Sperimentale di Padova. After his studies, he was considered an expert in examining silkworms, seeds, chrysalises and butterflies.

Antonio Trinca used the capitals of his father Alessandro, former mayor of Sernaglia, to start his sericultural activity. The factory consisted of three floors and a basement, for a total of approximately 2000 m^2. The basement was used as a storage room, while the remaining floors were used for hatching, breeding, storing butterflies or cocoons, and keeping fridges. The factory produced around 45.000 ounces every year and employed up to 180 specialized workers.

Unfortunately, as a consequence of WWI, the Trinca family had to leave Sernaglia for Naples and later for Ascoli Piceno. Occupied by Austro-Hungarian troops, the factory in Sernaglia was destroyed by the Italian artillery during the Battle of Piave River (1917). In the meantime, Sir Trinca opened a new branch in Dolzago (Lecco), current headquarters of the company.

sericulture

Italy's economic gold mine

Right after WWI, Sir Trinca decided to rebuild the factory in Sernaglia, which gained the name della Battaglia (of the battle) for the events that happened in the Great War. In 1922, the good times and his entrepreneurial skills helped him to establish two new industrial facilities: one in Mosciano Sant’Angelo (Teramo) and the other in Seregno (Monza Brianza).

The time between the two World Wars is considered the Italian sericulture golden age. During that time, the Italian production of silk reached its apex, and the company owned by Antonio Trinca was the most productive in Treviso’s Province. The seeds production of the three factories would supply a huge area, including the whole Veneto, the vast majority of Northern Italy and even reached Calabria.

Forty-two years after the foundation, in 1927, Sir Trinca transformed his company into a general partnership with his sons Alessandro, Aristide, Vittore and Giuseppe.

WWii

the generational shift

In 1933, Sir Trinca died, and the company passed to his sons. Giuseppe and Vittore stayed in Sernaglia Della Battaglia. Alessandro, the older brother, moved to Dolzago, where became the main supplier of silkworm seeds for the several silkworm breeders in north Lombardy, particularly Como. At the beginning of the Forties global raw silk production was around 62.000.000 kg: 47.000.000 coming from Japan, 3.446.000 from Italy and 2.000.000 from Korea.

After WWII, Italy underwent a quick industrialization process, which, encouraged farmers to leave the countryside for cities, which offered better working conditions. Italian silk cocoons production declined, and the factory in Sernaglia closed definitely in 1979.

the conversion

from silkworm dreeders
to silk twister

In the Sixties, industrialization, combined with the tough competition from Asia, led to the final decline of Italian sericulture.

Alessandro Trinca, the grandfather of the current manager, understood the situation. Hence, he transformed the silkworm plant in Dolzago into a new silk twisting factory.

the development and
improvement

of the twisting phase

Abandoned the production of silkworm seeds, family Trinca renewed its production plants adding machines for silk twisting. After the death in 1960 of Alessandro, the activity passed to one of his four sons, Ferdinando. Even though he had a Pharmacy degree, Ferdinando decided to continue the family tradition in silk production. Around the Sixties and the Seventies, the demand for natural silk dropped. Hence, he started working with synthetic fibres as well.

In 1984, the 4th and actual generation, Bruno and Alessandro Trinca stepped in. The activity underwent a final transformation: from simple third-party suppliers of twisted silk to producers and traders.

In 2002, the company decided to tackle Chinese competition by opening a new branch in Romania. This plant is employed to produce yarn of the same Italian quality, but in larger scale. Meanwhile, in Dolzago, silk yarn is twisted the highest quality and smaller orders.