After Milan, New York and Tokyo, Italian ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA opened its latest global flagship store in Dubai. The new flagship covers 500 sqm and it is located within Dubai Mall. Zegna Group continues its expansion strategy with 2 other such store openings announced for 2009.

The largest flagship Zegna store in Eastern Europe is in Bucharest, Romania and it includes all Zegna lines including the ... read more

Famous brand ABERCROMBIE FITCH has confirmed this week the strategy for expanding to Asia through a series of shops operated directly. Global crisis hasn’t been gentle with Abercrombie either, with the company announcing a series of layoffs for the Ohio center, USA. Recently, Abercrombie Fitch has confirmed for CPP its interest for expanding towards Eastern Europe, with Romania being ... read more

Without any formal annoucement, FENDI has slowly withdrawn its mens line from it stores. Sales assistants advise that Fendi mens shoes are only available in Geneva and Milan. Troubles at Fendi started many years before the crisis, soon after the take over by giant LVMH. Not even Karl Lagerfelds exquisit talent has managed to reposition the famous Italian brand which was best known for its leather bags and ... read more

The first HERMES branded helicopter has been delivered to a Saudi based private air company. The helicopter is developed by Falcon, Eurocopter and it is sold at a price tag of EUR 6 million. The interior design is entirely custom made by Hermes, using exceptional leathers.

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Prada annouced this week a fall of 20% in its net profit in 2008 with a stagnant outlook for 2009. The top intalian luxury brand is confident, however, that it will obtain the EUR 2 billion loans by the end of June 2009, which will alllow the brand to pursue its international expansion plans.

Escada is slowly but surely approaching its bankruptcy, major shareholers have expressed deep concerns over ... read more

Strolling down Pariss famous top luxury streets Avenue Montaigne and Faubourg St Honore, during rush hours highlights the painful situation of the majority of luxury brands, with empty shops and very few actual buyers. One would notice very few Russians and Middle Eastern customers. It is rather Turkish, German or Italian customers. Except for Hermes and Louis Vuitton, major stores of Gucci, ... read more

HUGO BOSS is in talks with the unions at its US factory, based in Cleveland, Ohio anticipating the imminent closure of the production facility. This comes as BOSS struggles with falling international demand and a decline in its sales worldwide. For the past 20 years, the Cleveland facility has served the US market for Hugo Boss mens suits. ... read more

Grand Hotel REX, the leading five star hotel on the Romanian Black Sea coast opens a luxury shopping gallery within its premises. Top international luxury brands from fashion, accessories and lifestyle will occupy the dedicated space within the ground floor of the hotel. A luxury SPA is the next strategic plan for the grand seaside hotel www.grandhotelrex.ro ... read more

As predicted by CPP even as early as December 2008, luxury watches have continued to be one of the most affected sector of the worldwide luxury industry. Swiss Federation confirmed last week a drop of 26% in exports of Swiss watches. World number 1 luxury group LVMH reported last week a fall in sales of up to 41% for its luxury watches division.

We estimate sales of luxury watches have dropped on ... read more

Patrizio Bertelli, owner and CEO of Prada recently stated that he is confident in the future development of the Prada brand and distribution network. Asia remains a priority for Prada, with top locations Taiwan, China, Japan and so on. Prada has invested ten million euros in the TRANSFORMER project, a design innovation to be presented at Seul, Korea during this month. Miuccia Prada will personally ... read more

The new InterContinental Kiev opens in the Ukrainian capital in July 2009. Perfectly located in the symbolic St Michael’s Square, the InterContinental Kiev is the only hotel in the city that can cater for up to 800 delegates in its ‘must-see’ grand ballroom. Highlights also include a state-of-the-art con¬ference centre covering an area of 1166 square meters, a French ... read more

Burberry is one of the few top international luxury brands to show positive results amid the unfolding international crisis. Burberry benefited from the weak British Pound and the solid gains in wholesale distribution. It is also the only top luxury international brand to report in GBP. Burberrys CEO recently estimated a stagnant 2009, while most of its competitors anticipate negative results. ... read more

PPR stock drops more than 8% on Wednesday on the Paris CAC 40, amid dropping sales for the entire group, especially the mass market division FNAC, La Redoute and Conforama. PPR owns worlds third largest luxury group GUCCI GROUP, which also shows disappointing results for all its brands, except GUCCI which has maintained a 1% growth in 2009.

Christian Dior has also announced a drop in sales of up ... read more

Tod’s, Valentino, Burberry and Prada are just some of the international luxury brands that have announced positive figures for 2008 and optimistic estimates for 2009, clearly stating that they will navigate through crisis just fine. Prada has even announced that it has managed to obtain a credit of almost one million euros for continuing its strategy to expand wordwide. Prada is currently 3rd ... read more

Giorgio Armani announced this morning during the first presentation of the International Home & Design Fair taking place in Milan, the partnership with reputed Italian luxury furniture company Molteni for the creation of an Armani kitchen. With a retail price of over EUR 110.000, the Armani / Molteni kitchen is custom made, following the design of Mr Armani. It is Armanis most recent licensing ... read more

The 2 major luxury fashion retailers which control the majority of luxury brands in franchise for Bulgaria have confirmed to CPP Management Consultants a drop in sales for the first quarter 2009 of up to 25%. Particularly affected are the womens fashion brands.

Bulgarias luxury market seems to be more affected than Serbia, Romania and Poland, the international crisis having a dramatic effect on ... read more

After Sofia (Bulgaria), Giorgio Armani SpA, announced early this week the closure of its Emporio Armani store in Buenos Aires, the only Armani store in the Argetinian capital. The series of difficulties seems to multiply for the Italian group, especially due to its excessive diversification of its brand, from mobile phones, flowers, cafes to hotels. Recently, even its hotel arm partnered with Dubai ... read more

The recently opened Gucci store in Londons Sloane Street reflects the new strategic positioning of the leading luxury Italian brand, placing it closer and closer to top position held by French giant Louis Vuitton. Sloane Street is the fifth worldwide Gucci store which illustrates Frida Gianninis vision for the future of luxury. The previous strategic openings in New York, Rome, Munich and Hong Kong ... read more

European Unions Eurostat agency has recently released revised figures for the CEE area economies in 2008. According to the Eurostat statement, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Austria are the only economies which remained positive in 2008. The worst performing have been Estonia and Lithuania. Eurostat also warns the foreign debt in Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovenia is 100% of the GDP. ... read more

After the closing down of Hugo Boss this year, Bally is next to close down its monobrand store. The temporary closing of the store by its owner RTC does not come as a surprise. CPP has closely watched the evolution of the brand since its opening by PSF, a company owned by the family of Mr Puiu. RTC took over the franchise in 2008, planning to further develop Bally. We would like to mention that this is the ... read more