Italian luxury brands are showing great sales recovery following last year’s pandemic-hit results.
Sales figures posted in the last week from several Italian luxury brands show them bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels.
The story is not the same for all.
Salvatore Ferragamo
Timing was not kind to the family-owned Salvatore Ferragamo luxury goods group. The pandemic hit just as they strived to rejuvenate their brand. It is known for designing shoes worn by stars such as Audrey Hepburn.
The company was hit harder than many of its rivals due to its exposure to travel spending. However, it announced first-half sales grew by 46.2% to €542million.
The revenue still does not match pre-COVID levels. The brand from Florence is counting on the arrival of Burberry Chief Executive Marco Gobbetti later this year to guide the turnaround efforts.
The trend is improving as the month of July “is continuing to show a solid growth in revenues in directly operated stores in the United States, China, Korea and Latin America both versus 2020 and versus the same period of 2019”, the company said.
Giorgio Armani
Sales at Giorgio Armani jumped 34% in the first half of 2021. Business in China and the United States helped the Italian fashion group bounce back. It did say it could be next year before it fully recovers from the pandemic.
“The goal is to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2022, with… over 2 billion euros in direct consolidated revenues,” Chairman and CEO Giorgio Armani said on Sunday in a statement announcing 2020 results and the trend for January-June.
Consolidated net sales had fallen 25% last year to €1.6billion. Most of the decline occurred in the first half of 2020.
Speculation about succession plans at Armani was rife recently after the 87-year-old designer said he could consider teaming up with another Italian company.
Moncler
Moncler more than doubled sales of its eponymous brand in the period, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The recent acquisition of high-end streetwear brand Stone Island further boosted the group revenue from April.
Excluding the acquisition, Moncler’s revenue rose 118% to €200million in the second quarter compared to the same period of last year.
Comparison with 2019’s second quarter shows Moncler’s sales were up 5% “even though the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact second quarter revenues especially in Japan and Europe”, the company said on Tuesday.
The consolidated revenues came in €8.3million higher than the average analyst forecast of €248 million. This is according to a consensus provided by the company.
