Reporter | Huang Shan
Edit | Lou Shuqin
"Women's Daily" recently reported that Damien Bertrand, the current general manager of Dior Dior, will succeed Fabio D'Angelantonio as the CEO of Loro Piana, an Italian high-end cashmere brand, on November 25, 2021. Both Loro Piana and Dior belong to the French luxury goods company LVMH Group.
Damien Bertrand has been General Manager of Dior for five years. In September 2016, LVMH Poached Bertrand from L'Oréal and put him in charge of dior women's wear, and then took over the management of dior menswear and children's wear, becoming the brand's second-in-command.
"Damien will take Loro Piana into a new phase of development, ensuring that new categories are developed while ensuring that the brand remains true to its unique values and continues to strive for excellence." TONI Belloni, general manager of LVMH, said in an internal announcement. In other words, after taking over Loro Piana, Damien Bertrand will continue and further consolidate the brand reform and layout achieved by Fabio D'Angelantonio in the past five years, including product line expansion and international market expansion.
In 2013, LVMH Group acquired an 80% stake in Loro Piana for €2 billion, becoming its holding company, while the remaining 20% of the brand remains in the hands of the brand's founding family. After being incorporated by the LVMH Group, Loro Piana accelerated its global market expansion, focusing on high-end business districts in various markets, such as the Avenue Montaigne in Paris, France, and the Ginza area in Tokyo, Japan.
In the Chinese mainland market, according to interface fashion statistics, Loro Piana has opened nearly 20 offline boutiques, which are more concentrated in northern cities such as Beijing, Xi'an, Shenyang, Dalian, and other first-tier consumer cities, while Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Guangzhou and other first-tier consumer cities are also covered. Loro Piana works with high-end retail real estate developers in China, such as Plaza 66 in Shanghai, SKP in Beijing and Xi'an, Zhonghuan in Beijing, and MixC in Hangzhou.
At present, Loro Piana has 152 stores worldwide, of which 135 are directly operated boutiques. According to the Women's Daily, Loro Piana will also open boutiques in Doha, Qatar and Palo Alto, California, in the coming year. It is not difficult to see that loro Piana will continue to follow the footsteps of wealthy people in the expansion of the global market.
Loro Piana's founding family has been operating top cashmere and other textiles for six generations, and the brand is famous for using rare cashmere clothing, with a double-layer cashmere long coat priced at 54,800 yuan, while a Turner double-layer cashmere coat is priced at 88,600 yuan, which is extremely luxurious.
In a January 2020 Financial Times report, then-CEO Fabio D'Angelantonio said the brand's customers were a group of "global elites flying around the world." In order to serve these customers well, Loro Piana will provide them with the same top service as a "private club" around the world, so that they can meet.
In addition, Loro Piana is also expanding its product line in an orderly manner after being acquired by LVMH Group. From its original cashmere clothing, Loro Piana has expanded bags, shoes, and lifestyle categories, such as Kashmiri cushions and cushions for homes, private jets and yachts.
Loro Piana's reform strategy did work. The Financial Times quoted analytical data as saying that Loro Piana's annual revenue at the time of its sale was 700 million euros, and it has almost doubled in 2019. However, according to the Women's Daily, Loro Piana's annual sales in 2019 were 1 billion euros.
While positioning top luxury goods and expanding global markets has led to growth for Loro Piana, the brand's original weaknesses in the wake of COVID-19 in 2020 need to be improved. In the two years after the epidemic, LVMH rarely emphasized Loro Piana's performance in the general report, and according to the aforementioned Women's Daily, Loro Piana expects to achieve revenue in 2021 to surpass the 2019 data.
Expensive pricing strategies, sophisticated services and offline retail space have earned Loro Piana an older and wealthier loyal customer, but Loro Piana lacks a presence among young people. This type of consumer population, which grows up in social media and digital marketing, needs different marketing tools to reach, which makes Loro Piana, who was originally conservative in digital strategy, more exposed to difficulties.
However, Loro Piana's goal of rejuvenation is already clear. In the aforementioned Financial Times interview, Fabio D'Angelantonio said Loro Piana's customers are divided equally between men and women, and as more and more rich people from Silicon Valley in the United States and China join the new rich, the brand is getting younger every year.
In October 2021, Loro Piana partnered with Hiroshi Fujiwara, the godfather of Japanese street fashion, to launch the first co-branded co-branded capsule collection. The collection consists of clothing and accessories that interpret the streetwear style with high-quality wool and cashmere fabrics.
The collaboration with Hiroshi Fujiwara is also the first attempt in the history of the Loro Piana brand. Once launched, Loro Piana opened limited-time pop-up shops in Taikoo Li on the Bund in Shanghai and Taikoo Li in Sanlitun in Beijing, and rose up to help young artists stand on the platform.
The Women's Wear Daily quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Phoebe Philo, a well-known designer funded by the LVMH Group, is discussing a one-time cooperation project with Loro Piana, but it is still in the contact stage, and the specific plan is still unknown.