Moderation: this is the word that Brunello Cucinelli said most often yesterday during the call with the analysts, an appointment usually focused on revenue and profitability data just approved by the board of directors. Not this time: or rather, the data for the first nine months are known from 21 October and those for the entire year will be announced on 10 January. The new numbers made by Cucinelli, president (and creative director) of the company, use “only” as a starting point the revenues of the January-September period, 502.6 million, increased at constant exchange rates by 34.5% compared to 2020 and 12.2% on 2019. As if to say that the company is growing double-digit compared to pre-Covid levels. There would be exultation, but Cucinelli urges himself, the board of directors and the entire company to be moderated.
“If in April or May 2020 an analyst, economist, a fellow entrepreneur or perhaps a magician had predicted a recovery like the one we saw in 2021, I would hardly have believed him – says Cucinelli -. The rebound in sales has touched a large part of the high range and we must make good use of it: we can no longer say that we are clouded by the pandemic or financial difficulties, we must return to our long-term visions. Or build new ones ».
«Discussing sustainability is quite simple: people like to listen to the stories of beautiful projects explained in beautiful words. But true beauty (another word much loved and used by Cucinelli, ed) lies in giving concrete and measurable form to ideas of change and improvement ». Yesterday’s board of directors approved the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in line with the principles of the Science based targets initiative (SBTi), an independent body to which the company will submit its objectives by the end of the year.
“The commitment is clear: the 2019-2028 plan includes a reduction in emissions of 60% in terms of economic intensity, of 70% in absolute value for those scope 1 and 2 and of 22% for scope 3 emissions”, Cucinelli points out, referring to the parameters developed by the UN. The time horizon is the same as the company’s growth strategies. Anticipating the results of the entire year that will be examined by the first board of 2022, Brunello Cucinelli defines 2021 as “a beautiful year of rebalancing”: with a growth in turnover close to 30%, it will make it possible to fully recover the 10% loss incurred in 2020, “so as to resume our solid and serene journey towards the objectives of the 2019-2028 plan”.
Perhaps this is Cucinelli’s secret: to live the present in moderation (there is no news, for example, of private jets or space travel ambitions for the Umbrian businessman and his family) and at the same time imagine a near future but also distant. After the Solomeo Beauty Park, financed by the Brunello and Federica Cucinelli Foundation, the Solomeo Universal Library was announced in October, which will open in 2024, near the church and the village theater.