Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli said Friday the family-owned Italian fashion group has no intention of selling and that his elder son with co-CEO and creative director Miuccia Prada is being groomed to take over.
Bertelli said during the unveiling of a handbag production site near Florence that his 30-year-old son Lorenzo "is preparing so that one day he can become the head of Prada," assuming that once he has learned the ropes he also still has "the desire to do it."
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Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli said Friday the family-owned Italian fashion group has no intention of selling and that his elder son with co-CEO and creative director Miuccia Prada is being groomed to take over.
Lorenzo started working in the communications department in September.
He did not say when he or Miuccia, 69, would consider stepping aside.
The Gianfranco Ferre brand has virtually disappeared after a period of receivership and then purchase by a Middle Eastern group. Jil Sander, which Prada briefly held, has changed designers several times since Sander gave up control. Roberto Cavalli is on its second designer after the founder turned over control to a private equity firm.
The 32,000-square-meter site is integrated with pools of water and blooming jasmine, grapevines, pomegranate trees and other greenery both to improve the experience of its nearly 800 employees and to help the environment by absorbing 20 tons of CO2 a year, the CEO said. It is one of 10 Prada factories in Tuscany.
Bertelli said the best way for the brand to respond to trends is to completely control production sites. Prada owns 35 percent of its production sites, 80 percent of which are in Italy -- bucking what he said was the sector trend of outsourcing production.
Like other fashion brands, Prada is targeting millennials, the generation born before 2000 and who are up to 35 years old now — encompassing the ages of Bertelli's two sons. They are responsible for 60 percent of Prada sales, and will inevitably tip the luxury market even more toward China, where there are 400 million millennials, compared with 80 million in the United States, he said.
A woman works at Prada's new industrial headquarters and production site, in Valvigna, Italy, Friday, June 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Lorenzo started working in the communications department in September.
While other Italian companies, including fashion brands, have sold when facing generational change, the 72-year-old Bertelli said "I have no intention to sell." Nor is he looking to expand the Prada Group, which also includes the Miu Miu fashion brand, Church's and Car Shoe footwear brands and the Marchesi pastry company, with fresh acquisitions.
Items are lined up on shelves at Prada's new industrial headquarters and production site, in Valvigna, Italy, Friday, June 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
He did not say when he or Miuccia, 69, would consider stepping aside.
"I think that retirement is tied to the physical and mental state of a person, and if one is efficient," he said, adding: "Retirement is a silly myth of a society that is old in principal."
Past examples show that the transition from the founding generation is not always a successful one, with the creative transition often the toughest.
Shoes and bags are lined up at Prada's new industrial headquarters and production site, in Valvigna, Italy, Friday, June 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
The Gianfranco Ferre brand has virtually disappeared after a period of receivership and then purchase by a Middle Eastern group. Jil Sander, which Prada briefly held, has changed designers several times since Sander gave up control. Roberto Cavalli is on its second designer after the founder turned over control to a private equity firm.
Bertelli unveiled the new site in the Arno Valley where the fashion group develops the sought-after Prada and Miu Miu handbags and leather accessories.
A view of Prada's new industrial headquarters and production site, in Valvigna, Italy, Friday, June 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
The 32,000-square-meter site is integrated with pools of water and blooming jasmine, grapevines, pomegranate trees and other greenery both to improve the experience of its nearly 800 employees and to help the environment by absorbing 20 tons of CO2 a year, the CEO said. It is one of 10 Prada factories in Tuscany.
The handbag is key to Prada's success, comprising 60 percent of its revenues, with the rest split largely between ready-to-wear and footwear. Prada is forecasting a return to sales growth this year after several years of profit decline.
A man works at Prada's new industrial headquarters and production site, in Valvigna, Italy, Friday, June 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Bertelli said the best way for the brand to respond to trends is to completely control production sites. Prada owns 35 percent of its production sites, 80 percent of which are in Italy -- bucking what he said was the sector trend of outsourcing production.
He would not say how much the Valvigna plant investment cost, only saying that it was less than 70 million euros ($82 million) -- 2 million euros of which were for the greenery.
Patrizio Bertelli attends a press conference at Prada's new industrial headquarters and production site, in Valvigna, Italy, Friday, June 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Like other fashion brands, Prada is targeting millennials, the generation born before 2000 and who are up to 35 years old now — encompassing the ages of Bertelli's two sons. They are responsible for 60 percent of Prada sales, and will inevitably tip the luxury market even more toward China, where there are 400 million millennials, compared with 80 million in the United States, he said.
Patrizio Bertelli attends a press conference at Prada's new industrial headquarters and production site, in Valvigna, Italy, Friday, June 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
After Gucci — owned by the French conglomerate Kering — unveiled to the investment community this week a video showing a robot making shoes, Bertelli said such production didn't fit his notion of luxury.
"To make a luxury product, like a handbag, it is not possible," Bertelli said, while conceding that it could be done for more casual footwear like sneakers.
ROME (AP) — Italy on Thursday marked its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule with marches, monologues and a media controversy over the legacy of Italian complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes.
The day began with the solemn Liberation Day commemoration at Rome's tomb of the unknown soldier. Presiding was Italy's president and Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini.
It ended with marches, speeches and occasional clashes between police and pro-Palestinian groups who used the occasion to voice outrage at Israel's war in Gaza.
But inbetween, this year’s anniversary was overshadowed by a media storm over the decision by state-run RAI television to spike a planned Liberation Day monologue by an Italian author denouncing fascism and what he said was Meloni’s refusal to repudiate it.
The issue struck a nerve in Italy, where Meloni’s 2022 election as the first hard-right leader since World War II has revived criticism that Italians haven’t fully reckoned with their fascist past as ordinary Germans did with the Nazi era.
The suggestion that RAI censored Antonio Scurati’s monologue because it criticized Meloni and lingering neo-fascist sentiment in Italy has dominated newscasts for days, and probably drew far more attention to the text than it would have if RAI had aired it as planned.
Scurati is the author of the prize-winning volume “M,” about Mussolini’s rise and its parallels with the present day.
In the end, Scurati read the monologue aloud in person from the podium of Milan's main Liberation Day event Thursday, holding a red carnation as he read — the symbol of the Italian Socialists who opposed Mussolini's rise.
The text recounted two well-known incidents: the June 10, 1924 assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, a Socialist lawmaker opposed to fascism by Mussolini hitmen; and the 1944 massacres of Italian civilians during the waning period of Nazi occupation.
“These two concomitant mournful anniversaries — spring of ’24, spring of ’44 — proclaim that fascism was throughout its historical existence — not only at the end or occasionally — an irredeemable phenomenon of systematic, murderous and massacre-fueled political violence,” Scurati said. “Will the heirs of that history recognize this for once? Everything, unfortunately, suggests that they will not.”
Meloni has tried to distance her Brothers of Italy party from its neo-fascist roots and has gone out of her way to forge ties with Italy’s Jewish community. Her forces have backed a long-delayed project for a Holocaust Museum and have strongly supported Israel, including in its current war in Gaza.
But the opposition has accused Meloni and her forces of refusing to firmly declare themselves “anti-fascist.”
In a bid to put the issue to rest, Meloni in recent days published Scurati's essay on her own Facebook page with an introduction accusing the left-wing opposition of concocting a scandal where none existed.
In the post, Meloni said she didn't know who at RAI decided to cancel the Scurati appearance. But she noted that the state-run broadcaster had said it just didn’t want to pay Scurati the agreed-upon 1,800 euros ($1,930) "for a one-minute monologue.”
In an Instagram post Thursday, Meloni didn't refer to the controversy and again avoided using the term “anti-fascist.” But she celebrated how Liberation Day symbolized “the end of fascism” and "laid the foundations for the return of democracy."
“We reaffirm our aversion to all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Those of yesterday, which oppressed peoples in Europe and the world, and those of today, which we are determined to oppose with commitment and courage,” she wrote.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella, whose ceremonial position puts him above the political fray, took a harder line. After laying a wreath with Meloni at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome, he travelled to the Tuscan town of Civitella, site of a 1944 Nazi massacre of 244 civilians.
There, he demanded that Italians never forget the “Nazi-fascist barbarism” of World War II, including what he said was the fascist propaganda and censorship that sought to deny the massacres, murders, deportations and other crimes that took place on Italian soil.
“It is necessary — today and in the future — to remember those massacres and victims,” Mattarella said. “Without memory, there is no future.”
RAI has launched an internal investigation into the decision-making that led to Scurati's monologue being cancelled.
Perhaps predictably, the suggestion that the state-run broadcaster spiked a text critical of Meloni's governing party has drawn attention to it, with calls for mayors to use their Liberation Day speeches this year to quote from it.
“At the root, there is a rule not to be forgotten,” commentator Aldo Grasso wrote in Corriere della Sera. “Once a text is censored, there is a strong risk that the text itself is no longer controllable and goes its own unpredictable way." He termed it the "boomerang effect.’"
People unfold a Ukrainian flag as they march on the occasion of Liberation Day in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)
Police face people holding Palestinians flags as they march on the occasion of Liberation Day in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini, joined the Italian president at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)
A police officer prevents contacts between the Jewish brigade and supporters of Palestinian communities in Italy and pro-Palestine activists during a march in Rome on Liberation Day commemorations Thursday , April 25, 2024. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)
People hold Palestinians flags as they march during the solemn Liberation Day commemoration, in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini, joined the Italian president at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni arrives at the tomb of the unknown soldier for the solemn Liberation Day commemoration, in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party traces its roots to the neo-fascist movement that emerged after the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini, joined the Italian president at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni talks with President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa during a ceremony at the Altar of the Fatherland for the 79th anniversary of the Liberation Day that commemorates the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic. in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)
People holding Palestinians flags march on the occasion of Liberation Day in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Italy is marking its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media controversy over the legacy of Italian fascist complicity in the Holocaust and World War II-era crimes. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)
Palestinian supporters hold a banner reading "Yesterday partisans, today antiZionists and antifascists" as they march on the occasion of the Liberation Day commemoration marking Italy's liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule, in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shakes hands with the president of the Republic Sergio Mattarella during a ceremony at the Altar of the Fatherland for the 79th anniversary of the Liberation Day that commemorates the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic. in Rome, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)
