Renzo Rosso Now Owns 70% of Viktor & Rolf

[Benn98]

Italian fashion group OTB boosts stake in Dutch brand Viktor&Rolf

JULY 25, 2019 / 11:06 AM / 5 DAYS AGO

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian fashion group OTB increased its stake in fashion house Viktor&Rolf to 70% with the remaining 30% equally split between the founders of the Dutch brand, the company said on Thursday.

OTB - which stands for Only The Brave - owns a string of street and upmarket European brands including Diesel, Maison Margiela, Marni and Paula Cademartori.

It recently said it was planning to invest 200 million euros ($223 million) over the next three years in mergers and acquisitions.

The group, founded by Italian entrepreneur and designer Renzo Rosso, bought an initial 51% stake in Viktor&Rolf - founded by Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren - in 2008.

The increase announced on Thursday “is part of the group’s plan to accelerate the growth of the brands already in its portfolio”, the company said.

Reuters

 

[Benn98]

Looks like he's going to be a busy man in the next few years.....

In a new interview Margiela owner Renzo Rosso revealed that the house has not been profitable in 17 years. “Every year, I provided the financing to keep it alive,” he says, mentioning that the brand is a “jewel” in the world of fashion. “I could have expanded it, but I didn’t do that because of Martin’s philosophy, which was all about exclusivity and small distribution. I never told him what to do with the collection.” However Rosso is now looking to double the brand’s business in the next five years. The shift will hopefully come from expanding retail — especially in China — and an expansion into beauty.

Full interview here.

 

[Lola701]

He is going to be very busy indeed... That’d what You get when you build a group for the wrong reasons, just like Prada back in the day. He did it just because everybody was doing it at the time and he choose the brand to have a credibility and have a seat at one of those tables.
There was nothing organic about his choices...
His best partnership is with Dsquared2. It’s so organic...

At least, V&R have a very successful fragrances business. They should maybe follow the Alaia model to relaunch a small RTW and have the Couture as their visit card.
Diesel is declining so now, everything has to be done to save the group.

 

[Benn98]

He is going to be very busy indeed... That’d what You get when you build a group for the wrong reasons, just like Prada back in the day. He did it just because everybody was doing it at the time and he choose the brand to have a credibility and have a seat at one of those tables.
There was nothing organic about his choices...
His best partnership is with Dsquared2. It’s so organic...

At least, V&R have a very successful fragrances business. They should maybe follow the Alaia model to relaunch a small RTW and have the Couture as their visit card.
Diesel is declining so now, everything has to be done to save the group.

I've heard from numerous people that Diesel is still the company's biggest drain, not actually Margiela. With Diesel, they spend way more on marketing, store maintenance, staff. In fact, we have two Diesel stores in the Bullring and I never see the shop exceptionally full.
I hope Kors is taking notes! Just because you have a semi esteemed brand on your books doesn't necessarily mean people will associate whatever else you have with that. The Dsquared2 aesthetic is not for me so take my assessment with a grain of salt, but the Dsquared2 we see now very often looks like early Diesel StyleLab. I speak in terms of clothes. That Renzo is not able to make Diesel work tells me that's, in fact, the Caten brothers who are the true driving force behind Dsquared's success, and not him. I'd go so far to say that Diesel's problems are management related, and not design related. They have a huge library to resurrect (True Religion did so recently), they could easily do a crossover collab with another brand in the stable just like we see recently with Dior x Rimowa. By now, Diesel should have been more on the Acne side, but instead, it's like the ugly stepsister of that tacky G-Star.

I suspect that recent Margiela must've performed well, that's why we are seeing this sudden push for more beauty. While I'm not too phased about Margiela going commerce because John is well versed in that field not to water things down just for a Chinese yuan, I do hope they'll a least take it reaaally slow in order to retain the brand's exclusivity.

Re V&R, there must be more than meets the eye to this sale. It's simply beggars belief that they'd sell their own brand like this.

 

[lelaid]

Hopefully this means they'll start doing RTW again

 

[Lola701]

I've heard from numerous people that Diesel is still the company's biggest drain, not actually Margiela. With Diesel, they spend way more on marketing, store maintenance, staff. In fact, we have two Diesel stores in the Bullring and I never see the shop exceptionally full.
I hope Kors is taking notes! Just because you have a semi esteemed brand on your books doesn't necessarily mean people will associate whatever else you have with that. The Dsquared2 aesthetic is not for me so take my assessment with a grain of salt, but the Dsquared2 we see now very often looks like early Diesel StyleLab. I speak in terms of clothes. That Renzo is not able to make Diesel work tells me that's, in fact, the Caten brothers who are the true driving force behind Dsquared's success, and not him. I'd go so far to say that Diesel's problems are management related, and not design related. They have a huge library to resurrect (True Religion did so recently), they could easily do a crossover collab with another brand in the stable just like we see recently with Dior x Rimowa. By now, Diesel should have been more on the Acne side, but instead, it's like the ugly stepsister of that tacky G-Star.

I suspect that recent Margiela must've performed well, that's why we are seeing this sudden push for more beauty. While I'm not too phased about Margiela going commerce because John is well versed in that field not to water things down just for a Chinese yuan, I do hope they'll a least take it reaaally slow in order to retain the brand's exclusivity.

Re V&R, there must be more than meets the eye to this sale. It's simply beggars belief that they'd sell their own brand like this.

Diesel is such a complicated case . I don’t know how they could turn things around... It’s quite a tacky brand. Maybe they can change their design team...
But their marketing is so...Italians trying to keep up with the youth if you see what I mean (D&G and Donatella showed us).
Maybe they should do the Moncler/Genius thing.

I’m not surprised. I didn’t expect from Margiela to be the biggest drain. I think they actually put all their hopes in the brand. The brand is actually making 200M despite not being profitable, according to the BOF interview.

The Caten only have a distribution and production deal with Rosso I think. It’s really a partnership but they are still very involved and I think their consistency and the way they have managed to evolve is impressive. Despite the fact that the brand aesthetic is the opposite of my personal style, i’ve found myself liking some collections and buying some pieces over the last 10years.
That being said, they were also clever in focusing on the menswear.

I think that The Caten might be more business savvy than Rosso...I feel like Dsquared is now where Rosso wished most of his brands were...And all of that by mainly selling clothes.

 

[bc collector]

I was really surprised by the move, I thought OTB had lost their hopes on V&R a long while ago...That said, I am also suspicious - and a tad worried for the Dutch duo (when designers leave the control of their company on someone else's hands, it usually means they are out in the span of a few seasons...).
Their RTW has never really taken off, not even in their golden era of the noughties. The shows were brilliant from an editorial point of view but the clothes, seen on the rack, could not stand up to the expectations, neither in terms of design identity or price. So, will they start doing super interesting pieces all of a sudden, years after their creative pinnacle?
I mean, everything is possible, but quite unlikely at the same time.

As for OTB, we know their strategy: maybe implementing an already robust perfume business, maybe trying with bags and small accessories...but clothes? Really? At a time when even an apparel-based and more structured brand like Margiela struggles to make a profit?

I'll believe it when I see it...