Latest news with #ElisaAnzolin
Business of Fashion
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business of Fashion
Italy's Fashion Brands Sign Accord to Fight Worker Exploitation
Italian legal and political authorities, fashion industry bodies and trade unions signed an action plan on Monday to fight worker exploitation in the apparel and accessories supply chain, after prosecutors uncovered widespread abuse. Italy accounts for half the world's production in the luxury fashion industry. The plan, which is not legally binding, is an attempt to tackle what Milan prosecutors have described in documents seen by Reuters as 'a generalised manufacturing method' that puts lives at risk to boost profits. A first draft of the scheme was proposed by a Milan court in June last year, after prosecutors uncovered workshops where underpaid workers, often irregular immigrants, produced leather bags sold to Dior and Armani for a tiny fraction of their retail price. This month an Italian court placed a unit of Valentino under judicial administration for a year, after uncovering worker abuse in its supply chain. 'The goal is that the court will no longer have to intervene', Fabio Roia, the president of Milan's court system, told journalists on the sidelines of the memorandum signing. The memorandum of understanding — reviewed by Reuters — focusses on the creation of a database of brands' suppliers and their workforces. Supply chain firms will voluntarily enter their data on the platform, including information on tax compliance, social security contributions and labour law compliance, with updates at least every six months. According to Monday's agreement, fashion brands must commit to raising awareness of the new platform among their suppliers and urge them to enter their data. However, they may still use suppliers and subcontractors that fail to do so. The regional government of Lombardy, around Milan, will issue firms that sign up to the scheme with a six-month renewable certificate of transparency. By Elisa Anzolin and Emilio Parodi; Edited by Gavin Jones and Barbara Lewis Learn more: A Slap on the Wrist Won't Solve Luxury's Sweatshops Problem This week, Italy's Competition Authority closed a probe into whether Dior misled consumers about working conditions at its suppliers without finding any wrongdoing. But a new case linking Valentino to poor labour practices suggests this is a problem that won't go away easily.
Business of Fashion
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business of Fashion
Luxury Sector Faces More Gloom as Bain Cuts Sales Forecast
Sales of luxury goods worldwide are likely to fall between 2 percent and 5 percent this year, consultancy Bain & Co forecast on Wednesday, sharply downgrading its previous estimate for 0-4 percent growth and signalling further gloom for the sector after 2024's 1 percent drop. Ahead of its closely-watched spring report, Bain said the luxury market was experiencing 'more complex turbulence across multiple axes.' It cited economic pressures and price fatigue over the first three months of the year, and noted shoppers were waiting for new, more creative products from brands. Bain's previous forecast for flat sales to 4 percent growth was issued in November. Top labels including Gucci, Chanel and Dior have appointed new designers as the sector faces its worst downturn in years, with a property crisis weighing on the Chinese market and US shoppers pulling back amid economic uncertainty. The new forecast comes as the industry braces for further economic turbulence following a global flare-up in trade tensions. While the large majority of luxury shoppers polled by the consultancy, 75 percent, said tariffs would not likely cause them to make fewer luxury purchases in the future, around half of those who had already pulled back over the past year said it was due to price increases in the sector. Many luxury brands capitalised on the post-pandemic surge in sales to make their biggest ever price increases in recent years, analysts say. Executives of designer fashion brands had hoped at the start of the year for a US-led turnaround, after improvements over the end-of-year holiday season, but by mid-February signs of weakening demand in the US began to emerge. By Mimosa Spencer and Elisa Anzolin; Edited by Mark Potter Learn more: Inside Luxury's Slowdown Economic headwinds, high prices and a lack of novel design are all weighing on what was previously fashion's most dynamic segment. How severe is the slowdown and how long will it last?
Business of Fashion
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business of Fashion
Ferragamo's Revenues Fell 1% in First Quarter, Dragged by Weak Sales in Asia
Italian luxury group Salvatore Ferragamo reported on Wednesday a 1 percent decline in sales at constant exchange rates for the first quarter, due to weak sales in the Asia Pacific region. The company, currently without a CEO after the exit of Marco Gobbetti two months ago, posted revenues of €221 million ($247.50 million) in the quarter, slightly below a Visible Alpha analysts' consensus of €223 million. 'The difficult macroeconomic environment, weighing on consumers' confidence, impacted the first quarter's performance, driving a decrease in traffic, only partly offset by higher conversion rate and increase in the average ticket,' the group said in a statement. By Elisa Anzolin; Edited by Gianluca Semeraro Learn more: Ferragamo Sales Down 17% in First Quarter Revenues totalled €227 million ($244.5 million), below analyst expectations of €237 million according a LSEG consensus.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Luxury sector faces more gloom as Bain cuts sales forecast
By Mimosa Spencer and Elisa Anzolin MILAN/PARIS (Reuters) -Sales of luxury goods worldwide are likely to fall between 2% and 5% this year, consultancy Bain & Co forecast on Tuesday, sharply downgrading its previous estimate for 0-4% growth and signalling further gloom for the sector after 2024's 1% drop. Ahead of its closely-watched spring report, Bain said the luxury market was experiencing "more complex turbulence across multiple axes". It cited economic pressures and price fatigue over the first three months of the year, and noted shoppers were waiting for new, more creative products from brands. Bain's previous forecast for flat sales to 4% growth was issued in November. Top labels including Gucci, Chanel and Dior have appointed new designers as the sector faces its worst downturn in years, with a property crisis weighing on the Chinese market and U.S. shoppers pulling back amid economic uncertainty. The new forecast comes as the industry braces for further economic turbulence following a global flare-up in trade tensions. While the large majority of luxury shoppers polled by the consultancy, 75%, said tariffs would not likely cause them to make fewer luxury purchases in the future, around half of those who had already pulled back over the past year said it was due to price increases in the sector. Many luxury brands capitalised on the post-pandemic surge in sales to make their biggest ever price increases in recent years, analysts say. Executives of designer fashion brands had hoped at the start of the year for a U.S.-led turnaround, after improvements over the end-of-year holiday season, but by mid-February signs of weakening demand in the U.S. began to emerge.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Prada brings Versace home to create Italian luxury contender
By Elisa Anzolin MILAN (Reuters) - Prada's deal to buy Versace revives hopes for a 'Made in Italy' luxury champion after many other family-founded brands ended up in French, Swiss or U.S. hands, and comes as many Italian groups are outperforming the struggling sector. The $1.375 billion deal brings one of fashion's best-known Italian labels back under Italian control after it was sold to U.S-listed Capri Holdings, then known as Michael Kors, for $2.15 billion including debt in 2018. Despite Italy accounting for 50% to 55% of global personal luxury goods production, according to consultancy Bain's estimates, the country lacks a group with a scale that matches up to French players such as LVMH and Gucci-owner Kering. Milan-based Prada, controlled by designer Miuccia Prada and husband Patrizio Bertelli and listed in Hong Kong with a market capitalisation of about 14 billion euros ($15 billion), is the largest Italian luxury fashion group by revenue. But the group, which also includes the fast-growing Miu Miu label, has been a relative minnow in terms of stock market valuation compared with the likes of Louis Vuitton-owner LVMH. The Versace deal comes after Andrea Guerra became Prada's CEO in 2023 to bridge a change in generation, with Lorenzo Bertelli, the son of the company's main owners and its chief marketing officer, regarded as the heir apparent. "Prada's ambition to become a leading Italian luxury conglomerate is a significant move in a market that is dominated by French groups. It's exactly what many Italians have been hoping for", said Achim Berg, a fashion and luxury industry adviser. The combined revenue of the five biggest Italian-owned listed luxury groups - Prada, Moncler, Ermenegildo Zegna, Brunello Cucinelli and Ferragamo - is still well below Kering's roughly 17 billion euros, even after a big fall in sales at the French group last year. Company founder Brunello Cucinelli summed up the difference in approach on the two sides of the Alps in typically colourful fashion. "Our esteemed French counterparts are great financiers," he told the Milano Fashion Global Summit 2024 last October. "But we Italians regard our 'tiny big' companies as if they were our little children, so we want to look after them and hand them down to a next generation," he added. AMBITIOUS MOVE While LVMH and Kering have swallowed many Italian brands, even the larger Italian groups have until now been comparatively reluctant to make big acquisitions. "This acquisition represents Prada's serious attempt to build a group - and a much more ambitious one compared to their past ventures with Helmut Lang and Jil Sander," Berg said. Prada's chairman and co-owner Patrizio Bertelli defined the acquisition of those two brands - which were bought at the turn of the century and sold a few years later - as "strategic mistakes". The group has since focused mainly on organic growth, with the exception of acquisitions of suppliers. Both Prada and Versace have their roots in Milan and still have headquarters there, just four kilometres (2.5 miles) apart. Milan-based Moncler, the mountain gear brand that was bought and revived by Italian entrepreneur and current main shareholder Remo Ruffini in 2003, has also shown some interest in dealmaking, buying Italian streetwear brand Stone Island in a 1.15-billion-euro deal agreed in late 2020. Moncler's net cash position of 1.3 billion euros has fuelled analyst talk of more deals, but the group has denied such speculation. Jil Sander is now part of Italian entrepreneur Renzo Rosso's OTB Group, which also includes brands such as Diesel and Maison Margiela. But with annual sales of 1.7 billion euros, it remains relatively small. The big Paris-based groups, meanwhile, have continued to make forays into Italy, underscoring the challenge an enlarged Prada would face to compete with them. In the latest deals, Kering bought a 30% stake in Italian maison Valentino in 2023, and LVMH last year helped to take Tod's private and took a 10% stake in Moncler's top shareholder. In the longer-term, eyes are on companies such as Milan-based Armani and Dolce & Gabbana, among the few in Italy that are still fully family-owned and unlisted. Their ultimate fates could be decisive in any effort to create a true Italian powerhouse in global fashion. ($1 = 0.9152 euros) Sign in to access your portfolio
