Ice cream to high fashion for new Gucci boss
Robert Polet to head luxury good group
The new chief executive of luxury goods retailer Gucci Officer is to be Robert Polet.
Polet joins Gucci after a 26-year career at Unilever, where he was most recently president of the consumer band giant’s worldwide ice cream and frozen foods division, a $7.8bn business with more than 40 operating companies.
He succeeds Domenico De Sole, who is leaving Gucci along with creative director Tom Ford. The change at the top coincides with the full buyout of Gucci by French retail group Pinault Printemps Redoute (PPR).
Polet will join the board of PPR. Serge Weinberg, PPR chairman said: “We are thrilled about Robert’s appointment. His international background, his broad experience in developing brands, his entrepreneurial and managerial talents and his ability to be both a leader and team player make him an ideal choice to run Gucci Group.”
Polet said: “I’m very honoured and excited to have been named to run Gucci Group. The different brands within Gucci Group are iconic names in the world of fashion and luxury goods. I consider it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be entrusted with their development.
“It’s a great challenge to succeed Domenico De Sole, and I’m greatly looking forward to working with the wonderfully talented people of Gucci Group to write a new chapter in its brilliant story.”
[img r]fnac.jpg[/img]The appointment comes as PPR reports strong growth across its retail operations, ranging from Gucci to the Fnac books and music chain. Group sales of €5,759.9m were up 7.1 per cent, and up by 10.4 per cent outside the France, where consumer spending has been sluggish and competition fierce.
Sales at Fnac climbed to €925.1m, up 9.6 per cent on a comparable basis. In France, sales growth was once again driven by technical products, while sales of books and music were ‘solid’.
[img l]conforama.jpg[/img]The Conforama appliance and furniture chain saw sales of €718.8m, with French stores seeing the benefits of a new store format and strong sales growth in Spain, Portugal and Croatia.
The Printemps clothing chain saw sales rise €228.7m,up 2.3 per cent on a comparable basis, while sales at home shopping business Redcats were €1,077.9m, up 1.9 per cent on a comparable basis, but hit by a tough environment for European clothing sales.
PPRs UK home shopping brands, operated by La Redoute, saw 1.5 per cent growth on a comparable basis.
[img r]empirehomeshopping.jpg[/img]This represents a ‘marked improvement’, driven by a revamp of the product offer and catalogue marketing in the Empire business, as well as encouraging results from a new direct-sales catalogue, The Store, which is targeted at younger consumers.
Luxury goods sales rose to €741.7m, with Gucci sales of €466.1 million, up 15.5 per cent at constant exchange rates. Yves Saint Laurent sales of €42.7m were up by 44.9 per cent at constant exchange rates, fuelled by buoyant growth in the US and Asia.
