MILAN — A rebalancing of its retail and wholesale channels contributed to Valentino’s gains in revenues and profits last 12 months.

Within the 12 months ended Dec. 31, sales on the Rome-based couture house reached 1.42 billion euros, climbing 15 percent compared with 1.23 billion euros in 2021. At constant exchange, revenues rose 10 percent.

“After years of single-digit growth, we succeeded in going beyond,” said chief executive officer Jacopo Venturini proudly.

He attributed this to a change in the corporate’s business model. Valentino reported 21 percent growth in its directly operated stores network, including e-commerce, while the wholesale channel registered a 6 percent decrease.

“These results are fully in keeping with our strategy of rebalancing wholesale versus retail by increasingly reducing the wholesale activity to focus only on working with chosen partners that reflect our brand values and sustain our business strategy and vision,” explained Venturini, who is just not forsaking wholesale entirely. “An external eye and opinion remain vital, a dialogue is at all times interesting and we don’t want to present that up.”

Directly operated retail generated 62 percent of sales in 2022 in comparison with 54 percent in 2019. Now, retail accounts for 67 percent of sales, and the goal is for that channel to represent 80 percent of the whole by 2025 or 2026.

In 2022, the corporate opened 24 stores, and relocated seven units. In 2023, Valentino plans to open 23 directly operated stores and relocate 15 doors. At the top of the 12 months, the variety of directly operated stores will total 221, said Venturini.

Within the 12 months ended Dec. 31, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, including the IFRS 16 impact, amounted to 337 million euros, up 18 percent in comparison with 2021. Operating profit totaled 121 million euros, climbing 30 percent compared with 2021.

Venturini said a conscious decision to concentrate on the repositioning of the brand, streamlining the corporate’s wholesale channel; ending the Red Valentino brand with the autumn 2023-24 season, and the choice to go fur-free in 2022 resulted in a discount of 100 million euros in sales — the quantity derived by the 2 segments together in 2019.

In September, Valentino introduced a latest store concept in Jeddah, on the Al Khayyat Center, followed by Geneva, a latest marketplace for the brand.

While retail expansion is within the pipeline, the manager underscored that “the goal is to grow in a granular way, in cities where we will not be present, as we will not be after an expansion for the sake of it.”

In May, the brand’s flagship will probably be relocated on Avenue Montaigne, with the brand new store covering 12,150 square feet and carrying women’s and men’s collections, accessories, fragrances and eyewear​, and including two VIP rooms.

In November, on Madison Avenue, Valentino will take over the space formerly occupied by Calvin Klein’s iconic flagship at 654 Madison Avenue on the intersection of sixtieth Street, which has been vacant for 4 years. Valentino will relocate from its existing store at 821 Madison Avenue. The brand new store will cover 12,150 square feet and carry men’s and ladies’s able to wear, accessories, fragrances and eyewear, along with including two VIP rooms.

In Florence, in March, the boutique relocated from Via de’ Tornabuoni within the medieval Palazzo Spini Feroni that houses the headquarters, to Piazza della Signoria, the town’s primary square.

In 2022, Valentino focused on a retail strategy in China, opening three stores between September and December at SKP in Chengdu, for menswear, ready-to-wear and bags, and shoes, respectively, and in September a latest store was unveiled in Shenzhen Bay MixC. 

Although Europe and the U.S. are Valentino’s primary markets, followed by the Middle East, Venturini said he’s seeing “a very important growth” in Southeast Asia and Greater China.

Valentino will relocate in Shanghai’s Plaza 66 in the summertime, while latest stores will open in Wuhan at Mix in August; in November in Shenzhen at MixC, and at IFC in Nanjing in December.

The brand new store concept, conceived internally, takes into consideration Venturini’s human-centric strategy and the “invisible service” needed to cement the connection with the client, with a small stock at the ground.

Venturini underscored that the dimensions of the stores is just not necessarily an important element, while the suitable location is more vital. The concept is to advertise “a more dynamic concept that evolves depending on the situation. You recognize the codes, but you see the difference in each store because it is integrated with the town.”  

Floors are defined by iconic geometric motifs rendered in Botticino and Sahara Noir marbles and elements in onyx and wood contribute to the sense of heat and discreet luxury.

Valentino has been working with local artists and specialist craftsmen to supply bespoke objects for the spaces. In Jeddah, Massimiliano Pipolo created handmade ceramic door handles, characterised by organic shapes suspended between functionality and abstraction.

Alexandre Logé created delicate chandeliers manufactured from sculpted plaster, white objects with extending branches hanging luminously within the space. Fabio Cinti was tasked with creating geometric compositions as decorative objects in brass.

Valentino’s e-commerce internalization program kicked off in early 2022 in Japan, followed by the U.S. and the remainder of the world, allowing the corporate to speed up its omnichannel integration to take advantage of latest opportunities, achieve more practical planning and native adaptation and boost client interaction in consolidated and latest markets.

While admitting uncertainties loom in 2023 as a result of macroeconomic issues, Venturini said he has seen “good signals” to date, expressing confidence in the alternatives remodeled the past few years since his appointment in 2020, and within the resilience of the corporate.

Valentino’s beauty and fragrance business, licensed to L’Oréal, jumped 40 percent compared with 2021. Licensed to Akoni, the brand’s eyewear continues its repositioning in the posh market segment through a select distribution and Valentino’s global store network, Venturini identified.

Accessories are expected to represent 63 percent of sales in directly operated stores in 2023, compared with 68 percent last 12 months.

Menswear last 12 months represented 14 percent of sales. The 12 months before, the category accounted for 18 percent of the whole.

Venturini sees “great opportunities in menswear,” and when asked a few potential shift available in the market away from the gender-fluid designs embraced by creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, the manager didn’t see any comparison.

Venturini didn’t elaborate on the reorganization of Piccioli’s design team following the exit of Sabato De Sarno, who in January was named creative director of Gucci, succeeding Alessandro Michele. His first collection for Gucci will bow in September. De Sarno joined Valentino in 2009, where he held positions of accelerating responsibility, finally being appointed fashion director overseeing men’s and ladies’s collections.

There are 75 Valentino stores that carry men’s and ladies’s collections, and 25 menswear-dedicated boutiques. Of those, 21 are shop-in-shops.

The distribution of menswear will probably be further prolonged next 12 months in stores in cities reminiscent of Paris and Shanghai, Nagoya, Wuhan and Latest York, to call just a few.

In 2022, the home launched the Maison Valentino Essentials, a number of timeless yet constantly evolving staples, as codes of Piccioli’s creative vision and the project will proceed through this 12 months.

The chief also spoke of numerous activities connected to sustainability. In January, Valentino became a member of the Textile Exchange nonprofit organization, whose goal, amongst others, is to support the industry to cut back greenhouse gas emissions from raw materials production by 45 percent by 2030.

In December, the home collaborated with Tissu Market on the “Valentino Sleeping Stock” project aimed toward the creative reuse of its stock of materials.

The Lights Off campaign was launched in October, whereby lights in Valentino boutiques on a world scale were turned off every single day starting at 10 p.m., prolonged to involve around 95 boutiques, predicting a every day decrease in energy consumption of greater than 800 kilowatt hours, equal to the hourly consumption of greater than 13,000 traditional light bulbs.

Since September, the home has also been collaborating with the Karma Metrix Energy Efficient website, an Italian search marketing and AI company that helps quantify the energy performance of web pages and web sites. The algorithm quantifies the CO2 emissions produced by the brand’s website, now equal to 2.56 grams per page view.