The passage of Marco Gobbetti to Salvatore Ferragamo by Burberry translated, in yesterday's session, into a loss of value on the Stock Exchange exceeding one billion euros. The drop, an unusual fact, involved both the flagship of English luxury (yesterday -8,6%) which capitalizes around 8,5 billion pounds, and the smallest Florentine maison (worth 3 billion and a little more, -2,7. 3,5% at the end of the session). In short, more or less a billion burnt in the farewell of the manager from the English brand, which he revived, thanks also to the genius of Riccardo Tisci, with a four-year shock therapy. But also a rain of sales against the Florentine brand that continues in today's session, with a particular ferocity in the first part of the session up to -XNUMX percentage points. Relevant numbers, therefore, even too much for an important passage but which, at least for now, does not involve the creative part.
- The buying and selling of an ace of luxury which Gobbetti (a long-standing militia in the ranks of Lvmh and Bottega Veneta) is not the only fact that unites the two companies, the only luxury maisons that ended 2020 in negative territory, despite the recovery in the finale: -15% Burberry, -19% the Italian house. A figure that contrasts with the much more brilliant reaction of the competition, from the primacy of the French flagships Lvmh and Kering to the awakening of Richemont's hard luxury. Not to mention the resurrection of Prada +59%.
- For the analysts, these numbers led to only one possible conclusion: both Burberry and Ferragamo, albeit for different reasons, did not seem capable of entering the top class of single-brand companies, where the stars of Hermes and Dior. Hence the prediction that sooner or later, more sooner than later, the two "preys" would have been the subject of a merger by competitors (or by a private individual eager to enter the sector).
- The entry into Ferragamo of a manager of the caliber of Gobbetti, who will soon assume the position of CEO replacing Micaela le Divelec Lemmi, at least months away from the timing of the operation. The new CEO, who will assume office in the autumn, is also responsible for choosing the new creative director, a position vacant following the departure of Paul Andrew. The legacy in Burberry is more complex where, as he points out in the Financial Times, it is bad practice to liquidate the legacy of past managements with ill-concealed malice. And the demolition of Gobbetti's work has already begun, who has tried to move the positioning of the house upwards. According to the ranking of Lyst, an authoritative web voice on luxury, Burberry is in twelfth place in the ranking of the most prestigious brands, behind Gucci, Dior and Moncler itself, that is, two places less than the position occupied in 2018. Even if, to tell the truth, Burberry is paying for the fight against counterfeiting and illegal sales (especially in Asia), undertaken a year ago by Gobbetti.
In a phase that is tired of the uptrend, luxury still appears among the more dynamic sectors supported by the growth in the number of billionaires. The global population of High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) according to Cap Gemini, it grew by 6,3%, passing the 20 million mark, while HNWI assets grew by 7,6% in 2020, reaching almost 80.000 trillion dollars. In Italy, HNWIs number more than 300.000, up 9,2% on 2019, with assets reaching 593 billion (+2,3%)
