How Gucci will be: products, markets, climate and carte blanche (or almost) to Alessandro Michele. Despite the numbers of the third quarter highlighting the delay of the brand compared to competitors, CEO Marco Bizzarri displays confidence. And prepare the celebrations, because in 2021 Gucci will turn 100 years old.
Bizzarri displays confidence
In a long interview with WWD, Bizzarri (pictured) talked about the new course for Gucci and those changes that “Covid has only accelerated”. According to the CEO, what works for Gucci may not work for other brands because “each brand should create its own path”. This means that one cannot always remain still, but neither can change much. Bizzarri praised corporate flexibility that allowed the brand to overcome the first lockdown without a dramatic delay in production and deliveries. “We are now even more ready for the second wave of restrictions,” he said.
Difficult times
“Courageous choices must be made in difficult times – continues Bizzarri -, seeing opportunities in a crisis, without thinking in terms of quarters but years, with a long-term business model”. Food, beauty, decor offer, will be the categories in development for the next year, bearing in mind that in 2019 leather goods accounted for 58% of sales, and shoes for 17%.
The distribution
Among Gucci’s boldest choices is the wholesale cut: the goal is to reduce the channel’s revenue share to less than 10% by next year. At the same time, the brand has incorporated new technologies and started a collaboration with The RealReal for a foray into second hand. Bizzarri stressed the importance of its 492 directly operated physical stores, especially from an omni-channel point of view.
Despite a lower-than-expected third quarter, Gucci’s CEO expressed his confidence in the brand’s strategies for the future, starting with markets that are responding well. Who does it refer to? In particular in China and the USA, where the collaboration with The North Face will be released in 2021. But according to Bizzarri himself, the biggest challenge that awaits him is that of climate change.
Read also:
- From Epilogue to Overture, Gucci changes everything (again)
- Tuscany magnetizes. Balenciaga is the last on a long list: here it is
