Since the beginning of the year, the demand for goods under the brands Roberto Cavalli and Salvatore Ferragamo has grown significantly: sales of these Italian fashion houses have increased by more than 20% in their own stores. The CEOs of both houses told Reuters that the crisis-hit luxury goods market may be slowly improving.
The fashion house Roberto Cavalli's turnover fell 22% last year to around € 175 million, CEO Gianluca Brozetti said. The main reason for the decline was the problems of the bankrupt fashion group IT Holding, one of the divisions of which produces Just Cavalli products under the license of the fashion house Roberto Cavalli. “If not for this and the crisis in America, I think our brand would have performed well,” says Brozetti. “But we are positive, as in the second half of last year and in the first months of 2010, sales in our own stores grew by double digits, which means that things have gone better.”
Salvatore Ferragamo CEO Michel Norsa said 2009 "met expectations" for them thanks to sales in the last two months of the year. He did not give exact figures for the past year, but noted a double-digit increase in retail sales in the first two months of 2010. “There must be reasonable caution as some countries remain unstable. But the mood of the buyers has changed. They're buying again,”Norsa said.