Reviving the faded colours of Benetton
Honed from his days at the helm of his family’s Formula One team, Alessandro Benetton retains a competitive streak he must use to fend off nimbler fashion rivals as he takes the reins of the struggling Italian retailer from his father.
Half a century after the knitwear group was founded by his father, Luciano, the heir to the Benetton empire was officially entrusted this week with reviving a brand that has fallen out of fashion from its 1980s heyday.
Benetton, one of Italy’s best-known brands, with more than 6,500 stores in 120 countries and a reputation for bold colours and controversial advertising, has suffered from the emergence of more flexible rivals like Inditex’s Zara and Sweden’s H&M.
In January, the family announced it would delist the company after a buyout of minority shareholders and Alessandro believes he can turn things around.
“Alessandro’s got a tough job on his hands,” said a person close to Benetton’s management.
“He is one of the most competitive people I have ever met. He’s married to an Olympian, but he is the most competition-oriented of the two,” the person said.
His alpine skier wife, Deborah Compagnoni, won three Olympic gold medals for Italy in the 1990s.
At 48, he is the secondoldest son of Luciano and not unlike other Italian business heirs such as Fiat’s John Elkann and Roberta Armani, he had to fend off accusations of nepotism.
This is why the Benetton doyen only handed over to his son an executive role in 2007, after he had established himself as an entrepreneur.
A graduate of Boston University, with an MBA from Harvard, Alessandro could give Benetton a 21st-century feel.
One of his first personal moves at Benetton was to name a creative director, You Nguyen from Levi Strauss & Co., to make the brand more innovative and edgy.
His business experience spans a stint as an M&A analyst at Goldman Sachs and creating private equity boutique 21 Investimenti.
Supporters say he will bring an international outlook and welcome jolt of energy to the two-billioneuro fashion house, whose sales have remained flat for a decade.
While its acid green sweaters and shock advertising campaigns made it an instantly recognizable name from New York to Tokyo 30 years ago, Benetton went from being one of the first global Italian icons to a tired brand.
“Benetton was first made famous in England by Lady Di before she got married,” said David Kitt, partner at London-based retail design firm Bauencorp, who describes Benetton’s style today as “not exactly avantgarde.”
As the 76-year-old Luciano, who still addresses his children in the local Veneto dialect, got older, Benetton failed to keep up with changing trends.
The group’s last controversial campaign effort, featuring photo-shopped images of the Pope kissing a prominent imam, was unsuccessful in kick-starting sales, critics said.
“These campaigns are a thing of the past, the hallmark of another era,” Intercorporate’s Armando Branchini said. “They need one-to-one, digital communication.”