Listen to the audio version of the article
Twenty-three against seven. If it were to be expressed in the form of numbers to be compared, the eternal struggle between Italian and French luxury – now increasingly weak, given that French luxury is largely made in Italy – would have this form. According to the 10th edition of Deloitte’s Global Powers of Luxury Goods 2023 report, in fact, among the top one hundred companies in the Fashion&Luxury sector at a global level (based on consolidated sales in the 2022 financial year, ed.) 23 are Italian, against “only” seven French. The latter – LVMH and Kering in the lead, with Chanel and Hermès among the top eight – are however the top players in the sector: they generate just under a third (32.3%) of the total sales of the top 100, have an average size of 16 billion dollars, more than four times higher than the average of the top 100, and a profit margin just under 20 percent. «The lion’s share continues to be made by the large luxury groups – explains Ida Palombella, global Fashion&Luxury Industry co-leader of Deloitte for Italy and the global network – but also by Italian companies, which for consumers remain a synonym of excellence and creativity unique in the world.”
To meet the first Italian in the ranking, the Prada group must drop to position number 18, stable compared to last year. Also included in the top thirty are Moncler (27th) and Giorgio Armani (30th, down two positions compared to 2022): together, these three companies generate 35% of the revenues achieved by the Italian companies in the top 100. Immediately after, in first part of the ranking, there are Otb, Max Mara, Zegna, Valentino and Dolce&Gabbana (the only one, together with Morellato Group (+11), to gain positions compared to last year: +5). Overall, the 23 Italian companies recorded an average turnover increase of 19.4%, slightly lower than the 20% of the average growth recorded by the 100 companies analysed, which reached 347 billion dollars, and an overall profit margin of 9%. .3%, four percentage points below the average 13.4% of the entire sample (up 1.2 percentage points on the 2022 ranking) and 19.3% of the French. «These companies are examples of prestige and this year they all recorded positive performances in terms of sales, almost all of them also had double-digit growth compared to the previous fiscal year – continues Palombella -. Taking a look at the future, the international economic and geopolitical context certainly reserves numerous challenges for companies and, as seen in the recent past, the large luxury conglomerates have a structure that has proven particularly resilient, but Italian companies are characterized from a great tradition, from a strong innovative drive and from business models increasingly oriented towards circularity which will make them capable of keeping up with the great transformations of the coming years”.
Italian companies are also among the growth champions: Golden Goose, a luxury sneaker brand with 529 million in 2022 revenues in the Permira portfolio, which is reportedly about to go public, achieved average growth between 2019 and 2022 annual growth rate of 24.1%, the fifth highest percentage in the global top 100 behind Farfetch, the Brazilian Grupo de Moda Soma (clothing) and two Chinese companies, Dr Corporation Limited and Chow Tai Seng Jewellery, both active in the jewelery segment. Also in the top 20 for growth were Morellato (+17.3% CAGR), Moncler (+16.9%), Euroitalia (perfumes, +15.3%) and Brunello Cucinelli (+14.8%).
The survey is, as already mentioned, in its tenth edition and photographs a completely different scenario from that of the beginning: «First of all, I would mention the growth recorded in the sales of luxury goods of the companies analyzed by our report in this decade: we have gone from 171 billion dollars in the 2012 fiscal year to 347 billion in 2022, more than double the value and with an increasingly incisive weight of large international groups on these results – Palombella comments -. In these ten years the world has literally changed, from consumers to companies up to the concept of luxury itself, today increasingly green, digital and close to the needs of its target, elements that were almost unthinkable until a few years ago in this sector strongly oriented towards heritage”.