There were quite a few rumours last week about French luxury goods and retail group PPR being interested in buying Italian fashion brand Brioni for 350 million euros.
Rumours have now been confirmed and Brioni has apparently passed into French hands.
In a way, buying the historical Italian company perfectly falls into the strategy of the PPR group that has displayed a strong interest in entering the luxury and sportswear sector and selling companies that are part of its retail portfolio (currently controlling Gucci and Puma, PPR is now planning to sell catalogue retailer Redcats by the end of the year). According to the reports, also French group LVMH and Italian Zegna were interested in Brioni.
As stated in a previous post, I’ve always been interested in what happens at Brioni since its headquarters are based in Penne, not far from the town where I was born, and the company is considered as a vitally important asset for the region's economy.
There are actually roughly 1,300 workers all over the Abruzzo region working for Brioni, 1,000 work in Penne and they mainly focus on outerwear; the others - working between Collecorvino, Montebello and Civitella Casanova - concentrate instead on womenswear, sportswear, men’s shirts and knitwear.
Owned by three families - Anna Maria Fonticoli, Maria Vittoria Fonticoli and Gigliola Savini’s, heirs of the two founders of the historical tailoring company, Nazareno Fonticoli and Gaetano Savini - in the last two years Brioni suffered from the effects of the financial crisis and global recession.
Though the company kept on opening new shops (the latest one in Düsseldorf), it had also been looking for new investors.
In 2010, its chief executive, Andrea Perrone, grandson of Brioni co-founder Gaetano Savini, also resigned from the company confirming the rumours about disputes between the three families owning it.
Resting on its James Bond fame, in the last few years the brand also displayed a certain tiredness in its men and women's wear collections and, while the company passing into French hands is another blow to Italy (earlier on this year jewellery group Bulgari was bought by French LVMH), hopefully it will be good news for the highly qualified craftspeople working at Brioni (and hopefully the new owners will reach an agreement with the local trade unions). Time to renew Brioni then and relaunch it also in the men's wear market in Asia (probably the main reason why PPR bought Brioni - luxury men's wear in China): what about trying with some eye catching Western inspired neon coloured '70s ads from the Brioni archives?
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wow..nice photos and great clothing..
I enjoyed the content..
Posted by: men suits | August 01, 2011 at 06:00 PM
I hope this takeover will be positive for Brioni.
Cathy
Posted by: Rocket French | August 11, 2011 at 03:23 PM
brioni is a family owned company and also one i admired since i entered the fashion industry because it is a made-to-measure service. i also do hope for a positive takeover for Brioni
Posted by: men stripe suits | August 31, 2011 at 04:11 AM