Safilo CEO Luisa Delgado and her staff were in Amsterdam to explain the company’s new plans and strategies. The Italian eyewear manufacturer focuses on selling-out instead of selling-in and prefers to become a partner rather than a supplier. The company beliefs in a multi-channel strategy and owns enough brands and licenses to serve every single channel in the market. Opticians and Safilo employees together will work on composing a brand portfolio for each store individual with less brands and a better presentation instead of a little bit of all brands like it used to be too often in the past. This should result in more added value in the stores. To optimize this added value in terms of product quality Safilo concentrates more and more production in Italy and Europe. In the media storytelling will become more important than traditional advertising. Of course we discussed the developments at Kering and the loss of the Gucci license. From a commercial point of view the company made a new good deal with Kering. In addition it will close down the production for the three other Kering licenses (Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Alexander McQueen) this Summer already. Safilo realizes there is still a lot of work to do to regain the ground it lost but outlined a clear strategy and seems dedicated to reach its goals. The brand portfolio with both own brands and licenses is still very interesting and the intentions to make it work seem sincere. We will continue following the company like we always did and keep you posted. Stay tuned!
