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Ferragamo wins 'Best of the best'

By FashionUnited

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Salvatore Ferragamo, the Italian fashion house that on 21 September, in rue Mont-Thabor, Paris, christened a new boutique called Ferragamo's Creations, recently won the title 'Best of the best' for 2009 in China, in the category of women’s shoes and came third in the field dedicated to women’s handbags. The award is the result of a survey carried out by the American Research group Luxury Institute of New York, involved in the analysis of high range products and geared toward a target of select Chinese consumers. The survey is carried out every year and is a yardstick to assess the quality of the Chinese luxury brand market. The label, established in 1927 in Florence, was given a score of 8.96 (out of 10.00) based on 4 factors: superior quality, uniqueness and exclusivity of the brand, and consumer and selected clientele satisfaction. This award follows the one obtained by the men’s footwear brand in the American and Japanese luxury markets.

The company, active in the production and sale of footwear, leather goods, clothing, silk products, accessories and perfumes, ended 2008 with a growth in revenues of 5% to 691m (in regular steps). Less optimistic, however, are the forecasts for the current year. “2009 looks to be a very difficult year”, said the Managing Director of the fashion house, Michele Norsa. “The crisis is extending very rapidly and is beginning to be felt even in China and India”. As regards the plan to list the Florentine label, with its 2600 or so employees, “no decision has yet been made for the current year, we are waiting”, emphasised Norsa. Again in 2008 the net profits of the company, whose women’s prêt-a-porter line was recently entrusted to the designer Massimiliano Giornetti, fell by 17% to 39m (from 47m in 2007).

Meanwhile, in 2009, the expansion of the distribution network continues with the opening of new sales points (there were 552 at the end of 2008). June saw the blessing of a flagship store in the luxury area of the Dubai Mall. The sales point covers a surface area of 420 square meters dedicated to men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, leather handbags and accessories, glasses, watches, jewellery and silk accessories. Opening at the Dubai Mall represents an expansion of the brand into the United Arab Emirates, where it has already been trading for 2 years with shops in the Mall of the Emirates and the BurJuman Centre. Bahrain too was fully included as a chosen destination by the fashion house to develop the retail strategy. In May, in fact, it opened the new shop Salvatore Ferragamo in the Bahrain City Centre Mall in the city of Manama, the island’s capital.

During the first 4 months of 2009, lastly, 5 new boutiques were opened in China: in Harbin, Xiamen, Taiyuan, Wuxi and Wuhan, added to another 33 already located in that country. The first shop was opened in January in Harbin, in North-East China, a city famous worldwide because every year it hosts the Festival of Sculptures. Xiamen, a port in southern China, faces the island of Taiwan and in the past was contested between many colonial powers. In April, moreover, new sales points were opened, both 158 square meters in area, in the Huayu shopping centre in Taiyuan, one of the first industrial cities in the country, and in Wuxi, at the Wuxi Yaohan shopping mall along the Zhongshang road, the street dedicated to shopping. Another opening took place on the first of May in Wuhan, considered the Chicago of China.

Salvatore Ferragamo