MIC launches first elastic coiled silk yarn, grows revenue 10% in Q1

Italian yarn producer Manifattura Italiana Cucirini (MIC) is thriving. Client numbers and revenue are up, and the company has launched an exclusive product innovation, broadening its offering and renewing existing collaborations. MIC, a producer of sewing and knitting thread based in Vallese di Oppeano, near Verona, presented the innovative Exté Silk yarn at Pitti Filati 99, renewing its partnership with Shima Seiki Italia.

MIC does business in Albania, all the Baltic countries, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, the Netherlands and Tunisia. The company has been “active for 50 years in the sewing thread and garment manufacturing sectors, offering a wide range of colours and taking special care of its clients, a key element for market success,” said Maria Chukwu, marketing assistant at MIC, speaking to FashionNetwork.com. “In addition to our headquarters near Verona, we own warehouses in Romania, Albania and Tunisia. In 2009, we opened a second manufacturing site, producing high-quality mercerised cotton in Egypt. [Egypt] is a country with a fine tradition for sewing thread production, denim garment-making, and other types of textile manufacturing,” she added.
 
“MIC’s core business is sewing thread, but for over 10 years we’ve also been extremely active in the knitting thread segment. Proof of this is our partnership with Japanese group Shima Seiki, with which we’ve collaborated for the last five editions of Pitti Filati, exhibiting at their stand,” said Nicola Carletti, marketing manager at MIC, picking up the story’s thread. This year, Shima Seiki has opted to focus on the new generations, showcasing garments developed in collaboration with fashion schools. MIC instead presented a brand-new product, Exté Silk, the latest addition to the Exté line, an elastic yarn suitable for knitwear, stretch fabrics and upholstery fabrics, available in a complete range of titles. “Coiled elastic silk yarn couldn’t be found on the market until now, we created it ourselves. It’s an elastic yarn made with over 90% silk, meaning that the feel on the skin is exactly like silk,” said Carletti.

Exté Silk doesn’t feel like satin silk but has a pleasantly crinkled touch. With its thinness and look, it can be used to manufacture fabrics that were until now very hard to produce, for example knitwear with a sheer devoré effect. At Pitti Filati 99, MIC used Exté Silk to create a garment prototype called Silk Embrace, adding other proprietary stretch yarns for greater solidity at the collar and armholes. Silk Embrace consisted of a shaved-knit skirt and top for a lightweight feel, while the central part featured a devoré effect decorated with MIC’s signature meander pattern, and a semi-sheer lateral inlay. It showcased all the production possibilities afforded by Exté Silk. 

“The garment was designed and assembled by MIC, having been produced by our partner La Trama, a knitwear manuafacturer from Ostra Vetere, near Ancona,” said Carletti. “We do produce the thread and decide on the design, but an ad hoc programme must be then developed for the knitting machine. We worked with [La Trama] because they have the technical expertise, they know where to place the right stitch based on the design and fabric,” he added. 
 
MIC’s colour chart, applicable to all its yarns, features 450 shades, all available for their sample service. There are always a couple of kilos of each shade in stock to quickly meet any demand. “We’re very proud of this service. We have a range of over 70 types of yarns, and being versatile within each type’s assortment, and able to quickly satisfy our clients’ customisation requirements, makes all the difference. Especially at a time like now, when plenty of attention is paid to materials, colours and aesthetic effects,” said Carletti. “Currently, tassels, layered surface effects and extremely glossy effects like metallic lurex are in high demand. The market is moving either in the direction of body-hugging looks, with elasticated fibres, or towards very voluminous, soft shapes, characterised by luminous yarns and rather bright colours,” he added.

MIC has approximately 60 employees at its headquarters near Verona, and 200 altogether. Sales-wise, in fiscal 2025 “the luxury knitwear segment gave us a strong push, a high-margin segment that in some respects is still quite new for MIC,” said Alessandro Ostillio, head of sales. “The sewing thread market is going through a troubled patch, because garment producers are struggling. We’re still happy, because we introduced new products and diversified our offering by smartly stepping into other segments besides knitwear, like workwear and carded yarns. In 2025, we recorded €10 million in revenue as MIC Italia, growing 5% year-on-year. The group as a whole reached €18 million, and in Q1 2026 we beat expectations, posting double-digit growth,” added Ostillio.
 
MIC has nearly 1,200 clients, but generates 80% of revenue with its 20 top names, as is usual in this industry. “Let’s bear in mind that we entered the elastic knitting yarn market only five to six years ago, becoming one of Italy’s leading companies and facing predominantly international competition, from Japan, France and Germany,” said Ostillio. “Our assortment, which covers five titles – from the finest to extremely voluminous effects – gives us a unique colour palette, one of the most sought-after features in the knitwear sector. Why? Producers using different suppliers with different colour palettes for similar materials often come across chromatic discrepancies. Having us as their single supplier with a colour chart that applies to all yarns is a decisive plus,” he added.

MIC’s yarns and colour chart are included in Yarn Bank, Shima Seiki’s yarn database for the knitwear sector. Yarn Bank is an innovative system utilised in the programming of the Japanese company’s knitting machines, containing full information for each yarn, which can be inputted into the machine to show the design effect. In 2025, Shima Seiki recorded revenues for €176.4 million, of which €29.2 million generated in Italy. “We don’t sell via classic e-commerce, but [through Yarn Bank] we’re able to make extremely interesting business contacts,” concluded Carletti.