MILAN — Winds of change are sweeping over Benetton Group.
According to sources close to the Italian fashion company, Claudio Sforza has been named its new chief executive officer, effective June 18. He will succeed Massimo Renon.
Sforza is recognized for his financial and industrial expertise as his background includes management roles at construction group Astaldi; at leading player in the financial, insurance and payment services sector Poste Italiane; at steel company Ilva, and telecommunications companies Telecom and Wind. His curriculum also lists a stint as CEO of gaming company Gamenet.
The arrival of a new CEO is not surprising, following an interview with cofounder Luciano Benetton with Italy’s daily Corriere della Sera on Saturday. Aged 89, Benetton said he was exiting the company he cofounded and his role as president, and that he felt “betrayed” by his managers, without naming Renon. Benetton claimed they drove the company into the red and that he had only recently found out just how bad the situation was.
To be sure, market sources said Tuesday that Benetton Group’s board has approved the financial figures for 2023, which will then be submitted to the shareholders’ meeting on June 18, and confirmed the bottom line.
Revenues last year amounted to 1.1 billion euros, with a net loss of 230 million euros, also due to a devaluation of 150 million euros. Losses before interest and taxes amounted to 113 million euros.
Net assets totaled 105 million euros.
Despite Luciano Benetton’s exit, controlling shareholder Edizione, a Benetton family holding, is said to plan to continue its support of the reorganization and relaunch plan of the fashion group, earmarking 260 million euros to this end over the next few years. Over the past three years Edizione channeled 350 million euros into the Benetton Group activities.
Renon joined Benetton at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2020, from Marcolin. He had joined the Italian eyewear company from the eyewear division of Kering in 2017 as worldwide commercial general manager and after 10 months he was promoted to helm the company. Prior to that he was Safilo’s head of business for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. While he also counts a stint at the Ferrari team in Maranello, Italy, Renon developed his career at Luxottica, which he joined in 2000 and left after a decade, rising to the role of director of the New Europe Region, after being responsible for Belgium, Turkey and North Europe.
Luciano Benetton returned to the Benetton Group in January 2018 as executive president, to spearhead yet another turnaround of the company, which had for years reported declining sales, pressured by competition from the likes of Zara and H&M. For context, revenues fell 15.4 percent to 1.37 billion euros in 2016, from 1.62 billion euros in 2014.
He had retired in April 2012, the same year that the company delisted from the Milan Stock Exchange, passing the baton to his son Alessandro, who exited the company in 2014. When Alessandro Benetton took a step back from his role as chairman, for the first time in the history of the brand founded in 1965, a non-family member, Gianni Mion, was appointed to lead the business. Luciano Benetton founded the fashion group with his siblings Carlo, Giuliana and Gilberto.
Returning to the company, Benetton relied on photographer Oliviero Toscani, with whom he famously collaborated for years on controversial ad campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s. In February 2019, he appointed designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac the brand’s first artistic director, with the aim of moving away from low-cost positioning and bringing production back to Europe. In 1974, de Castelbajac cofounded Iceberg, and in 1978, he launched the Jean-Charles de Castelbajac brand, which he left in 2016. Over the years the designer has collaborated with Max Mara, Ellesse, Courrèges, Rossignol and Le Coq Sportif. Blending punk and pop references, his style dovetailed with Benetton’s use of strong colors and a whimsical and irreverent touch.
Benetton was set on restructuring the company, returning it to the height of the ’80s, after being accused by observers of missing trends, relying on an outdated business model and lacking a clear brand identity.
Under Renon’s watch, in July 2022 United Colors of Benetton appointed Andrea Incontri its new creative director, in charge of the women’s, men’s and children’s collections.
Joining from Tod’s, where he was men’s creative director, Incontri’s first collection bowed for spring 2023 and was presented in September during Milan Fashion Week. Incontri, who is said to be still in place, succeeded in delivering fun and young collections in sync with the brand, which he characterized as a pioneer in embracing inclusion, diversity and sustainability through its timeless and long-lasting designs, as well as a wardrobe of daily essentials. In February, the brand skipped a runway show, perhaps the first sign of its financial troubles.
Edizione’s diversified investments include stakes telecom masts group Cellnex, insurer Generali and investment bank Mediobanca, among others.
