“LVMH and Kering are bigger. But, compared to them, we have advantages in terms of elasticity and speed of decision-making that we are trying to exploit”. So says Ubaldo Minelli, CEO of OTB, a group that has presented its 2021 budget amidst the hypothesis of acquisitions and listing on the stock exchange, but, above all, with a great desire to grow. In other words, it has budgeted 300 million euros to invest in order to go from a 2021 turnover of 1.5 billion euros to 2.5 billion euros in 2024.
OTB’s 2021 budget
OTB (which owns Diesel, Maison Margiela and Jil Sander) reported net sales of just under 1.5 billion euros in 2021, up 18% on 2020 and in line with 2019. Net profit was 142 million euros. Its performance was driven by the luxury segment. Maison Margiela increased 107% between 2019 and 2021, while Jil Sander broke even just nine months after joining the company. “OTB’s luxury brands are up 49% over 2020, and 55% over 2019. We continue to study new acquisitions in this segment”, Minelli told Repubblica.
Asia, the stock market
Driving revenue growth will be Asia. Japan already generates a quarter of the turnover of the group, which has planned to double its 80 shops in China in the next three years. “We plan to invest 300 million euros over the next three years. The expected growth is 20% year on year, thus reaching around 2.5 billion in turnover in 2024”, Minelli explained to Il Giornale di Vicenza. 2024 will also be the year of the company’s debut on the stock exchange. The CEO himself explained the Group’s growth as the result of “strategic choices, starting with having secured the supply chain financially in the most difficult times”.
OTB’s advantages
Minelli reiterated that OTB will not end up in the hands of a luxury group, but, on the contrary, “maintains the ambition of being a pole that aggregates luxury brands, I would say the only one in Italy. There is no desire to sell. Of course, the two French luxury groups are of a size that is difficult to reach. But we have advantages over them in terms of flexibility and speed of decision-making that we are trying to exploit”.
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