Alessandro Maria Ferreri, ceo and owner of The Style Gate consulting firm, also believes “fashion has a short memory” and, remarking on how most retailers and competing brands remained silent on the issue, he expects that, “once the storm has passed, people will be thinking about the new season.”
Ferrari noted that the group employs more than 3,000 people, and it is one of the first 10 largest Italian luxury groups in terms of sales, which at the end of March 2018 totaled 1.29 billion euros, with 25 percent coming from the Asia Pacific region. Showing “some support” to help Italian craftsmanship and value would be fair now, he said. To this end, he appreciated how Rinascente “did not cave in to sensationalism, despite the fact that Chinese tourists are important” for the retailer.
“They slipped, but they apologized and I am sure that they are picking up quickly, also in China, which is an important market for them.” He also noted that on Dolce & Gabbana’s web site, of the brand’s six foreign branches, two are in Asia, one in Shanghai and one in Beijing. Additionally, he observed that the group, according to its balance sheet, in the last fiscal year invested 12.8 million euros in the Asia-Pacific area, opening stores in Ningbo, Shenzhen, Chongqing and Guangzhou — all Chinese cities. “I think that relations with China will go back to normal because of the good job they are doing,” Ferrari concluded.
