Italy: Prada to Add 260 Shops in three years on demand from emerging economies
Friday, 25 May 2012
last update: May 24, 17:56
Milan, 24 May (AKI/Bloomberg) - Prada SpA (1913), the Italian fashion company that owns the Miu Miu and Church’s brands, plans to add 260 stores in the next three years to tap demand in emerging markets including Brazil, China and Persian Gulf countries.
“We aim to speed up expansion by opening 100 stores this year, 80 stores each in 2013 and 2014 globally,” said Chief Executive Officer Patrizio Bertelli whose company opened 75 stores last year.
Demand for Prada leather goods and other items is rising even as China’s economic growth slows and Europe’s debt crisis weighs on consumer spending, Bertelli said. The company is benefiting from increasingly wealthy Chinese tourists who are fueling growth in Europe as it also targets markets in the Middle East, he said.
“We are expanding in Morocco, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai and Qatar,” Bertelli said in an interview with Bloomberg Television conducted in Italian via a translator. “Brazil is also a big market we’re looking at.”
The expansion would increase the number of Prada outlets to 674 by adding to the 388 directly operated stores and 26 franchises it had as of January.
The so-called BRICs take their name from the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
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