You are Alessandra Bertoli, Supply-Chain Finance Lead at Maison Velluti, a Florence maker of leather goods and fashion. The CFO wants €30 million of working capital freed within two quarters, and before anything else you must set the posture the whole programme will take toward that target.
The situation
It is Friday, 12 June 2026. Maison Velluti, founded in 1968, makes leather goods, footwear and ready-to-wear for its own label and, under contract, for two global luxury brands: €540 million of revenue in 2025, a 16% EBITDA margin and 1,900 people. It buys from 220 suppliers — tanneries, textile mills, hardware makers, small workshops — 70% of them Italian SMEs in Tuscany and Veneto. About 35% of supplier spend goes to small Tuscan workshops with little access to credit: the tier behind the "Made in Italy" the clients pay for. Today it pays them at 75 days.
The CFO wants €30 million freed within two quarters and has floated the quickest route: move all 220 suppliers from 75 to 120 days. The same week a notice arrived from Conceria San Frediano, a Tuscan tannery — one of only two certified chrome-free and animal-welfare compliant — that supplies 22% of the certified leather: it has six weeks of cash left and asks to be paid faster, or it will stop shipping.
Meanwhile the two luxury clients, with €190 million a year of contracts, have tightened their sustainability and traceability codes: chemical management, certified leather, living-wage audits. The audit falls in this same quarter, and upgrading a small workshop costs about €200,000, more than most of them can pay. You report to both the CFO and the Chief Procurement Officer, with authority over financing terms but not over whom the company buys from. There is a fund of up to €12 million for ESG and supplier finance.