WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Gustavo Denegri, CEO of De Negri ZA.Ma in Caserta, Italy, has set his sights on building his business in the USA with the hospitality and cruise ship market as a high end specialist mill. He spoke with F&FI during a business trip to Florida, which found him loving a turkey sandwich during the Thanksgiving time period. His 165 year old silk mill which originally sold looms to King Ferdinando of Borbon, can produce all of its silk jacquard designs in silky Trevira® yarn for the commercial market, De Negri explains. De Negri’s family originally came from Genoa in 1875 but later migrated to Caserta where is ended up owning the mill started by the King. “Our editeur customers decided to work with Trevira as opposed to unbranded yarn because of its silky quality. About 80 percent of our business is residential but the balance in contract is growing for us for the past five years,” he adds. De Negri utilizes Esant® yarn which represents a finishing process in the fabric state for silk, making it impervious to water and soil, he says. This is primarily for residential use and it has also found its way on to yacht interiors. De Negri is doing about 30 percent of its business in the USA. It also has customers in China and Taiwan, De Negri says. However, with the appointment of Rachelle Tenace as his agent in Florida, he expects the business to grow further. The contract line is in the 15-30 Euro range. De Negri, who handles sales, is an equal partner with Luigi Malatesta, a technical specialist and with Marcello Zagarella, a production expert. The trio built a new mill in 2008 just as the Italian textile world was tanking. Originally, the Zama mill made plains and this expertise was merged with De Negri about 15 years ago when his other two partners merged with De Negri. That vision to build when everyone else was shrinking back is now serving the 30-man company very well, De Negri feels. “We are poised to grow again in 2016,” he says.