The Muntaner Street Shop Christmas 2016
This year, my Christmas letter is more personal than ever… It is a thank-you letter written with a deep emotion to the person who showed me the important value of work and family: my father.
Without sounding distressed, I do want to express how the figure of Marino Desii had an influence on the history of my family and my company, which soon will turn 50 years.
I still remember how he would always wear his Italian attire so smartly while he was concentrating to firmly decide on the duties of the Italian shop he was running together with my mother. They would work restlessly, even on Sunday, at a time when just few shops would open. The oven of the pizzas, fresh pasta, cold meat and traditional Italian stews, the first ice creams… would attract the customers, always faithful to such an unforgettable aroma of tomato and basil or freshly baked lasagne.
However, in our Tienda –that is how we would affectionately call it- not only smells and aromas were absorbed, but also values like effort, sacrifice, organisation, expertise, creativity, risk… Eventually, endless experiences and anecdotes that would combine certain imperfections sometimes but also good decisions and moves. The love for what’s authentic, the quality, the respect for tradition and the eagerness to innovate were already in the air in that shop, which became the pillar of what we are now.
Few years later, we moved to the Colonia Textil Sedó in Esparreguera, our current headquarter, keeping the same mindset. Every corner, every room, its cellar, every single step of our old industrial palace bears the footprint of my father; his architectonic wisdom was the key to remodelling our Centre of Research and giving it a soul.
Nowadays, I look back and I admit that his rigour and bravery blazed a trail for me. His teachings still encourage me to build the future and make me have the certainty that the best business in the world is my family… with its third generation in front.
For this Christmas celebrations I appeal to the sense of family and to the fact of being grateful for the most unconditional love: the love of a parent to a child. Buon Natale, Babbo! You will always be with me!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sandro Desii