Radice resurfaces at La Rinascente
Former Selfridges and M&S director joins Italian retailer
Vittorio Radice has returned to his native Italy to take up the prime role of managing director of department store chain La Rinascente.
A shareholders’ meeting of Rinascente Spa, the holding company for the Rinascente and Upim chains, has appointed Maurizio Borletti chairman of the group. The board of directors then named Radice as managing director of La Rinascente and Luca Rossetto in the same role at Upim.
As chief executive of Selfridges, Radice was credited with the turnaround that saw the department store reinvented as a cutting edge fashion retailer, as well as start its expansion outside London.
His next job saw him become head of home, and then head of store development, at Marks & Spencer. Having masterminded the Lifestore format, Radice parted company with M&S last year after the arrival of Stuart Rose as chief executive. One of Rose’s first acts was to shut down the Lifestore project.
La Rinascente was sold in March for €888m to a consortium led by Pirelli Real Estate. Radice will spearhead a modernisation programme starting with the renovation of the flagship store in Milan and rolling out to all 18 Rinascente stores.
