Prada boss criticizes analysts

Patrizio Bertelli has spoken out on his disregard for analysts' valuation methods and the incestuous relationship between finance and the fashion industry.

The president and chief executive of fashion house Prada aired his criticism at a luxury goods conference organized by The Wall Street Journal, Italian publisher Class Editori and Merrill Lynch at the Milan stock exchange. "Analysts are wrong to look just at the number," he said. "They don't consider what's really important to building a global brand: time and history."

Bertelli said that it is more important to concentrate on the brand's ability to enter "the collective consciousness" than on its size. To emphasize this point, he referred to a replica of a Prada store as an art installation in the Texas desert. "A brand, when it is global, has to preserve step after step...all of the characteristics of innovation, identity, communication and quality, and do something unique and recognizable all over the world," Bertelli said.

He deflected the subject of a possible IPO - which the company has postponed no less than four times - but speaking on the subject of the possible sale of Jil Sander, he said that he would consider it if the offer was "very, very, very good". He added that there had been buyer interest in Helmut Lang."We are restructuring (Jil Sander) and converting an entrepreneurial business into an industrial one," he said.

Prada recently created a new company, the Prada SpA Group, which encapsulates the loss-making Helmut Lang and Jil Sander businesses and a minority stake in the shoemaker Church's. Bertelli repeated that Prada is hoping to stimulate operations at Jil Sander by moving them from Germany to Italy, and also reiterated that the company has closed down production of Helmut Lang while it considers its possible sale.