Sales Growth Slowed In Furla2018, Founding Family Reiterated Not To Sell

After a slowdown in Italy's luxury luxury brand Furla SpA La in 2018, the founding family's determination to remain independent remains firm, even if foreign buyers are willing to "spend money" on acquisitions.

In 2018, Furla SpA FRA set a milestone in revenue exceeding 500 million euros. The annual revenue increased by 2.8% to 513 million euros compared with 499 million euros in 2017, and the increase was 5.2% at a constant exchange rate.

Over the past four years, group revenue has doubled. One of the main driving forces is the large expansion of the Furla in 2013. The number of China's mainland's Furla FRA stores is 62, and Hongkong has 18 stores.

Last year, the group bought the rights and interests of the Chinese joint venture company to recover the retail distribution network, and also copied it in Singapore and Australia.

In a media interview in Italy, Giovanna Furlanetto, President of Furla SpA, pointed out that 2018 is a "unified business year". This is partly due to the slowdown in growth. In addition, the group has continued to invest in capacity and online platform. Last year, it bought Effeuno Srl, a leather supplier of Italy for many years.

Giovanna Furlanetto stressed that management was "very satisfied" with last year's performance.

As the largest single market of Furla SpA, Japan's annual fixed exchange rate increased by 3.6%, contributing 22% to the group.

The Asia Pacific region, which accounts for 26% of sales, has increased by 18.2%, while the United States has seen an impressive increase of 13.2%. However, the current scale of business is still small, accounting for only 8%.

The remaining 44% sales came from the European, Middle East and African markets, but geopolitical turmoil in the largest European countries made sales in the region only flat in 2017.

Alberto Camerlengo, group chief executive, said that as a small and medium-sized brand, they can react in time when the market demand changes. This is totally dependent on the bureaucracy inside the management, and Giovanna Furlanetto has always been open to the door and ready to deal with problems.

Retail channels consisting of 490 single brand stores in 98 countries / regions create 70% revenue for Furla SpA.

Last year, a 45.7% increase in e-commerce sales contributed to the group's overall contribution to 7%-8%. Alberto Camerlengo revealed that Europe is the largest electricity supplier market in the group, followed by Japan.

Furla SpA, who was founded 92 years ago, is still a family business.

Despite selling a minority stake in Italy investment company Tamburi Investment Partners SpA (TIP.MI) in 30 million euros in 2016, it has been strongly pursued by some well-known buyers in recent years. Giovanna Furlanetto emphasizes "Furla is not for sale".

She pointed out that the next generation of family members has entered the company, and the family is also investing resources in the long-term development of the company.

Although Tamburi Investment Partners SpA has clearly identified IPO as the end of investment when it joined the stock market, Giovanna Furlanetto continued to emphasize that the group was not eager to go public, and now their goal is "healthy organic growth".

Giovanna Furlanetto and her brother Carlo Furlanetto and Paolo Furlanetto jointly inherited Furla SpA FRA from her father Aldo Furlanetto, and her son joined the board, but there was no management position.