Journelle is taking control of its supply chain.
On Monday, the New York-based lingerie company Journelle fully acquired its own factory in Italy, after years of working with third-party vendors. And it has plans to own a second factory in the near future.
Journelle co-CEO Guido Campello told Glossy that the change was in the works for over a year and that the company has partially owned its production for some time. The owned factory will continue to produce lingerie for other brands, as well. For he and his wife and co-CEO, Sapna Palep, owning the brand’s factories has been a long-time goal.
The vertical integration comes with challenges, like the need to make regular trips to Europe from Journelle’s home base in New York to oversee production. But there are also many upsides, Campello said: Tariffs are more manageable when the company is in full control of where and when it ships. Plus, it allows Journelle to allocate even more resources to its namesake, owned brand, which has increasingly become a major revenue driver for the company. Journelle also sells lingerie from a number of other designers like Agent Provocateur, Calvin Klein and Free People. It sells online, as well as in three stores in New York, which will soon be joined by a fourth New York store and one in Chicago.
Campello said the time was right to fully take ownership of Journelle’s factories, as he sees a resurgence in Italian manufacturing.
“A lot of the labs, which is what we call the factories in Italy, were starting to close right when tariffs hit,” Campello said. “They had no business. Now, if you go to get something made at the lab, they’re packed. There are three-month lead times because there’s so much production.”
Campello said Italy’s prime minister, Georgia Meloni, has been cozying up to Trump and has made herself one of the few European leaders to be on good terms with the president. That, along with government subsidies, has led many global businesses to see Italy as a relatively safe haven for manufacturing. As Trump has repeatedly threatened further tariffs on E.U. countries, Italy has seen its tariffs decrease, including the striking of a 107% tariff on pasta a month ago.
In December, the Italian government released the “Made in Italy 2030” report — an ambitious plan to re-industrialize the country and reverse long-term manufacturing stagnation.
For brands like Journelle, investing in manufacturing in Italy now is a bet that, as the world becomes increasingly regionalized, more manufacturing businesses will flock to European countries with long-established manufacturing infrastructures.
“Globalization is challenged,” Campello said. “Italian factories have been lowering their manufacturing costs as business comes back. Something that cost €250 to produce a few years ago only costs €5 today. But Europe is isolating, Asia is isolating. And if European companies want to manufacture in Europe, that business is going to go to places with lower labor costs like Italy and Spain.”
Journelle’s private-label business has grown from around 20% of the business when Campello took over in 2019 to 80% now. Journelle also went from carrying around 100 brands to now just 20, in addition to its own brand. The brand is privately held and declined to share specific revenue numbers.
Journelle was acquired by Campello and Palep from its original founder, Claire Chambers, in 2019. The pair previously owned the lingerie company Cosabella, which they sold for around $80 million in 2022 to the Swiss company Calida Group. The global lingerie market is currently worth around $84 billion and is growing at a rate of around 7% per year, according to a 2025 report from Future Market Insights.
“We would probably carry a lot more brands if we didn’t have our own production,” Campello said. “Owning it gives us the margin control to produce slowly and in small batches. If you’re a third-party brand, getting a 30-60% margin on your product is good, but it’s hard to lose 50 cents from every dollar.”
Journelle’s private-label revenue increased 44% in 2025, without raising prices. That success has helped position the company for several big swings later this year, including the March launch of Journelle Skin, a cosmetics and beauty side of the business led by Palep, who is also a licensed dermatologist.
Despite the brand’s strong position with its new supply chain, Campello said he still warns his team to be ready for anything.
“The world is completely changing,” he said. “It’s an election year. We had a good year in 2025, but I told my team to be ready. We have a new mayor in New York, we have this president, we have an election, we have a global repositioning in the business. We have to be ready and safe and prepared for anything.”
