Coin aims abroad and creates a new brand

Italian department stores are shaking off the feeling of being poor cousins of Saks and Bergdorf Goodman in New York and Galeries LaFayette and Printemps in Paris, and are conquering positions in the international department store sector.

This has been helped by the acquisition, in January 2010, of 100% of the share capital of Upim, a nationwide chain with 149 direct shops (converted into Coin, Ovs Industry and Upim POP stores) and a franchising network of more than 200 sales points, and the Coin group, for example, has become the largest Italian player in clothing retail, leaving behind La Rinascente, another multibrand department store, with a range of high level brands and products.

The group from the Veneto Region, which therefore today works with the brands Coin, Ovs Industry and Upim POP, has decided to establish itself on the international market aiming for a retail strategy, working alongside labels known worldwide, and giving birth to a new high range brand, dedicated to a cosmopolitan public, christened Coin Excelsior, which will debut in Milan, in September.

Meanwhile, despite shares having been penalised in recent weeks in Piazza Affari [the Milan stock exchange] due to the failed agreement for the transfer of the majority of the group from Pai Partners (which through Financière Tintoretto holds 69.3% of Coin) to Bc Capital; a €1.6 bn transaction that had pushed investors to speculate, the group closed 2010 with an increase in its Gross Operating Margin of 34% and a turnover of €1.64 bn (+36%). “We are very happy with Upim’s effective integration process that since the first year has already contributed significantly to the Gross Operating Margin of the group” affirmed the Managing Director of the Coin group, Stefano Beraldo.

These figures can guarantee the group’s expansion beyond Italian borders, in order to share the market with its noble relatives of boulevard Haussmann and Mumbai. The current retail expansion is being undertaken mostly through franchising operations, with partners inserted in the local markets. In particular, Coin has 15 shops abroad, 5 direct and 10 franchised; Ovs Industry has 72, of which 7 direct and the others franchised. On the agenda for the end of April is the opening of Ovs Industry in Paris, at the shopping centre Le Millénaire. Shortly the department stores of Athens and Mumbai will be opened, while last August saw the opening of three shops in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai (the retail project partner is the Indian company Brandhouse Retails).

Moreover, like the great low cost chains H&M and Zara, Ovs Industry is also banking on working alongside labels with international appeal. 115 chain stores are actually selling the label Eequal, the fruit of the cooperation with the Custome National designer Ennio Capasa. The spring-summer 2011 advertising campaign shot by Scott Schuman has an international flavour, although it was made in Rome. The American blogger and photographer portrayed Oliviero Toscani, Veruska, chef Davide Oldani and the dancer Eleonora Abbagnato in informal situations.

An international root, finally, also for Coin Excelsior, the luxury brand that will debut in September, a stone’s throw away from its competitor Rinascente. The architect of the store, 7 thousand square meters over six floors, is Jean Nouvel, a Frenchman who has already designed the Fondation Cartier and the H&M store on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. The shop will sell collections from a few trendy brands: Maison Martin Margiela, Phillip Lim 3.1, Vanessa Bruno, Isabel Marant, Sergio Rossi, and Christian Louboutin. The shop-in-shops Tiffany & Co., Valextra and Ladurée will also be there. “We are enthusiastic about this project, which allows the Coin group to expand into the higher levels of the retail sector”, said Beraldo.

From our correspondent in Milan