In some ways, by putting then on the cover of our weekly newsletter distributed at Lineapelle a month ago, we had been predicting the obvious. Describing the magic touch of the couple Marco Bizzarri/Alessandro Michele (in the photo) we had called the article “Watch out, here we come”. And nothing could have been any truer than that, given that yesterday Kering, the multinational that owns Gucci, published the results of the third quarter of 2016, revealing that the designer brand has literally set off fireworks. The +18% result registered is the first double-digit percentage growth since 2012 and means that Gucci is worth 60% of the entire operating profile of Kering, with a quarterly turnover equal to 1,088 billion euro. The French “parent company”, driven by the Florentine designer brand, registers a 10% growth, closing the turnover of the third quarter at 3.2 billion euro. “The Gucci result is way beyond our expectations: no one had stuck their neck out and predicted more than +10%” comment the analysts, amazed also by the overwhelming +34% registered by Yves Saint Laurent (326.1 million euro), revitalised by new creative director Anthony Vaccarello. In the first nine months of the year, Gucci cashed in over 3 billion euro, registering a growth of 8.5%, with all production segments and markets positive. Or effectively, all but one: Japan. In the midst of so much light, in the Kering portfolio (+5.6% in the first nine months) one shadow stands out, continuing to wrap itself round Bottega Veneta, which suffers a fall this quarter too, losing 11% of its turnover on its way. Kering justifies the umpteenth drop of the designer brand from Vicenza citing the “fall in purchases by Chinese tourists in Japan and Europe”. But these words have been repeated for months now, with no sign of a cure for the ill suffered by Bottega Veneta. It is worth remembering that the brand reached colossal heights in the period from 2009 to mid-2015. Back then, strangely enough, its CEO was Marco Bizzarri…
Fireworks for Gucci (+18%) this quarter and tears for Bottega Veneta (-11%). The Bizzarri-Michele duo leads Kering to success (+10%)
