The column – Market ideas
There have been many articles on Giorgio Armani who came out in this last week in the newspapers and it could not be otherwise given the national and international fame of which our most iconic designer enjoyed.
Remain driving a companythen became a group, for 50 years (Giorgio Armani Spa was born in the second half of 1975) It is something that very few people have done in the world. Above all because when he missed he held all the most important positions: President, CEO and Creative Director. And controlled 99.9% of the company. It was still the beating heart of Giorgio Armani Spa.
We leave to others the comments on him and his incredible life and concentrate on the Business of Giorgio Armani Spa. The first year of activity led to 569m of turnover lire (295,000 euros), a great result for those times (1976) and from there the growth continued uninterrupted: 250mld of lire in 1984, 1680mld of lire in 1999 (867m of euros), in 2010 we are beyond 1.5mld of euros, 2024 closed with 2,3mld of euros of revenues (over 10,000 employees and 2,700 boutiques). Just observing that the record turnover dates back to 10 years ago (2,65mld in 2015) testifying to greater difficulty in growing.
Multi-brand conglomerates in the luxury sector such as LVMH (87.7mld), Richemont (20.6mld) or Kering (17.2mld) are much larger and have grown by force of acquisitions, with a different path.
However, if we go to compare Armani with single brands in the clothing/fashion sector, the numbers are different (Zegna 1.9mld, Loro Piana 1.5mld, Valentino 1.3mld, Versace 1mld) testifying to the successful path made from birth to the present day. And remember that the brands of some of the characters of the Historical photo taken in Piazza Duomo of 1985 which portrayed all the most famous Italian stylists Of the time there are no longer even (Ferré failed) or are rather small today (Mila Schon, Moschino, Trussardi).
And at the level of profitability? An extremely important factor in the fashion sector, which serves to be able to continually reinvest and also to overcome less favorable years. Here too excellent progress until the middle of the last decade (record of net profit in 2016 with 271m of euros) and then a certain drop with an average profit value around 140m in the last five years. Data for business sector are not available, but it seems clear that Not all the numerous initiatives undertaken over the years (clothing, home, perfumes, accessories, hotels, restaurants) they had the same success on an income level.
We close this short tribute to King Giorgio with some less known number: 172cm tall, 250 films in which his clothes were worn, 12mld his total heritage that placed him in fourth place in Italy (Fonte Forbes), since 2012 he has been the blue athletes at the summer and winter Olympics, with Olimpia Milano (acquired in 2008) has conquered 6 Italian basketball championships and 4 Italian Cups.
