Diesel Boss To Take Over Marni

[eugenius]

Founder of Diesel clothing company Renzo Rosso poses in front of Rialto Bridge in Venice December 14, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Manuel Silvestri





MILAN | Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:02am GMT

MILAN (Reuters) - Diesel jeans brand founder Renzo Rosso is poised to take over Italy's Marni to relaunch the bohemian-chic fashion house on foreign markets, the company said.
The all-Italian acquisition is a rare case in a luxury industry where most deals are made in France and Asia, and confirms Rosso as a dynamic fashion entrepreneur in Italy.
The rockstar-looking businessman, whose Only The Brave holding controls foreign brands Maison Martin Margiela and Victor & Rolf, also makes clothes under licence for young-focused lines Just Cavalli and DSquared2.
His holding booked revenues of around 1.3 billion euros ($1.72 billion) in 2011, broadly stable on a year before, but core profit margins rose 10 percent to 14.7 percent of sales.
Financial details of the deal are to be announced at a conference on Thursday.
Founded in 1994 by fur businessman Gianni Castiglioni and his Swiss-born designer wife Consuelo, Marni is sold at around 320 shops in the world, including around 100 Marni-branded stores.
Italy is one of the world's biggest fashion producers but its fragmented, family-owned industry has not seen consolidation on the same scale as France.
French luxury giant LVMH (LVMH.PA) bought Rome jeweller Bulgari in 2011, while the Qatari royal family snapped up Valentino for a whopping 700 million euros in July.
"It has proved impossible to conglomerate Italy's luxury brands like France did," Umberto Nicodano, partner of Italy-based law firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo told Reuters.
"The reason: a strong desire of independence of our brands which would have led to issues of governance and valuation."
Marni had long been at the centre of takeover talks.
Rosso, whose holding had a positive net financial position of 133 million euros in 2011, told Reuters in November he had financial resources to make other brand acquisitions.
(Reporting by Antonella Ciancio; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

 

[softgrey]

i didn't know he had control of Viktor and Rolf...?

looks like he's planning to take over the world...


thanks for the thread eugenius...

 

[eugenius]

I didn't catch that part about V&R either; that's what I get for skimming before posting.

I wonder how this will change Marni's visibility..because now, you have all sorts of MMM stuff seemingly everywhere (it seems like anytime I click on the Mens link any any high-end e-shop, theres MMM), but I don't think I can say the same about V&R. *shrugs shoulders*

 

[Scott]

it was fairly recent that happened with v&r actually...2008 i believe. and long after they went commercial.

he also has a stake in sophia kokosalaki's company due to her involvement with diesel-owned staff international.

i dunno....it'll be very interesting to see how the marni evolves because most have after joining the company.

 

[gomtik]

O god, please stop him!!!!! He's ruining some of my favourite brands (MMM and now Marni). Annoying!

 

[ultramarine]

I honestly believe he can do great things for these labels.

Please remember how bad V&R did on the begining when they were doing couture. I distinctively remember how they even went on strike for a season.

Then, there is the other side like Halston and Galliano which got bought and then they cant/coudnt design even under their own name, which to me, is worse.

I somewhat believe his vibe of cool and as a succesfull business man in the fashion industry who doesnt ONLY cares about making money.

Lets hope for the best.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

This is good news, he's a business man who understands the delicate balance between brand identity and bottom line product. Hopefully he doesn't impress himself too much on the Castiglionis and send them packing the way Bertelli did Sander and Lang.

It seems the only way to battle with the PPR's and LVMH's in this day and age is to consolidate with other would-be independents. Not ideal but this is the world we live in. I wouldn't be surprised if this is just the beginning of other, more niche, luxury houses joining forces

 

[Scott]

the only thing i fear is that something like marni will begin to move away from what their core aesthetic. i mean while some of you say that rosso does allow a certain freedom,and granted there is to some degree,many of the labels he did snap up over the years did in fact change in a lot of areas. it happened with margiela soon after he joined. many of those collections in the mainline lost a bit of its authenticity and did become rather gimmicky. margiela was forced to re-appropriate most of his creative impulses into the '0' artisanal collection,which as you know was very expensive to produce. there's also the point of quality which many of my friends who were long time margiela wearers noticed had gone down a couple levels.

even kokosalaki after joining staff her aesthete became a lot more streamlined. her textural craft had suddenly become less and less of a focal point.

i think for me the bottom line is,there really is no such thing as truly uninhibited creative freedom in big business...whether it's rosso or arnault.....at the end of the day their only concern is turning profit.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

the bottom line is,there really is no such thing as truly uninhibited creative freedom in big business

Agree: it's why I left the fashion business myself.

 

[Lena]

O god, please stop him!!!!! He's ruining some of my favourite brands (MMM and now Marni).

lock the creatives, mr Diesel is out for their heads

he's ready to destroy Marni, like he did with V&R, Sophia & MMM

 

[harmarkev]

is that a curse?
V&W for H&M
then Marni at H&M
then MMM at H&M
all owned by Diesel Group

with Just Cavalli and DSquared2 and Diesel itself left...

 

[Scott]

i doubt if that has any direct correlation,in those terms. marni wasn't even part of the diesel-OTB-group at the time of that collaboration. and H&M still had karl,stella,lanvin and CdG. but i am willing to bet that MMM's involvement with H&M had a lot to do with rosso's input.

now V&R though,i think one could also make the argument they had as much to do with their own commercial proprieties as rosso did. i think that was the main reason they involved themselves with the company because they were interested in going 'global'.