TheChek News Flow

SHANGHAI, China – Gucci’s blockbuster growth is going to last “forever.” So says the president and chief executive of the Italian luxury juggernaut, which surpassed €6 billion ($6.9 billion) in sales for the first time in 2017, up 45 percent on a comparable basis from the year previous. This year, first half comparable sales rose 44 percent.

Marco Bizzarri was speaking, tongue somewhat in cheek, at last week’s BoF China Summit in Shanghai, where he also opened up about an internal company video leaked the week prior, which showed him reassuring staff about the inevitable slowdown in growth for the brand.

Contrary to the message that staff should expect harder times to come for Gucci, Bizzarri says his intention was to reassure staff that a dip in year-on-year growth, after enjoying such a boom for so long, is bound to happen, given the percentages are now off a higher base, but should not be cause for concern.

“We doubled the business in three years, so of course we could have shops that are slowing down a little bit but frankly I am not worried,” he says.

The candid interview with BoF founder and chief executive Imran Amed included pointed remarks about China’s major e-commerce platforms, and was held in front of major players in the local fashion industry, including executives from Alibaba’s Tmall and other tech giants driving the Middle Kingdom’s e-commerce boom. It is worth remembering that 42 percent of all e-commerce transactions on earth happen in China, according to data from McKinsey Global Institute.

“Listen, it is very much sooner or later we're going to end up working with these platforms. [But] at the moment, we are in a situation of wait and see,” Bizzarri says.

“Frankly speaking, [on] most of the platforms, there’s a lot of counterfeiting and I don’t want to certify counterfeiting because I belong to these platforms.”

Bizzarri was quick to explain that his problem with counterfeiting has less to do with any potential impact to Gucci’s revenue and more to do with the conditions in which counterfeit products are produced, often by cheap and unregulated labour markets, a practice he is unwilling to support.

Gucci and its parent company, Kering, have had a tumultuous relationship with China’s e-commerce platforms over the years.

In 2014 and 2015, Kering filed lawsuits against local e-commerce market leader Alibaba, over the prevalence of counterfeit goods on its sites. Last year, in a major PR victory for Alibaba, Kering dropped the suits and agreed to partner with the Chinese behemoth to establish a task force and share information with the shared aim of protecting Kering’s brands.

This détente coincided with Alibaba’s push to attract more luxury brands and a greater share of China’s luxury consumers — who account for 32 percent of luxury spending worldwide, according to Bain & Co. — by opening a dedicated “Luxury Pavilion” for invited brands and customers within its existing e-commerce apps.

The pavilion has partnered with more than 60 luxury brands since its inception just over a year ago, but if Bizzarri has his way, it seems unlikely that Gucci will be among its next round of brand partners, even if it means missing out of the treasure trove of big data on 600 million Chinese consumers that Alibaba promises to luxury allies.

“I don't think that being the first mover is going to create a competitive advantage for us. So in this case, instead of taking a risk, I’ll wait,” he says.

Shortly after Bizzarri’s interview at the BoF China Summit, several stories broke about the latest challenges facing China’s luxury sector.

A crackdown by customs officials limiting the amount individual Chinese travellers can bring back from abroad is being more strictly enforced. Since Chinese consumers account for 32 percent of the worldwide total of luxury sales and about one third of them shop abroad, this is worrying. Then there is the continued issue of daigou (grey market shopping agents) and the bigger picture. China's economy is growing at its slowest pace since the financial crisis.

“I control what I can control. [If] the Chinese authorities decide to stop the daigou, what can I do?” Bizzarri said. “Currency fluctuations, traffic flows, daigou duties. It is something we cannot control as a company, so as a CEO I need to control what I can. I hope that the Chinese customers are now going to spend more in China so we'll do our best to increase their shopping experience here.”

Earlier this year, Bizzarri said that Gucci’s eventual target is to achieve €10 billion ($11.6 billion) in annual revenues. Given the company’s current growth trajectory, it seems possible to reach that level within the next few years. But where will future growth come from for the company? The answer lies in the beauty and fragrance categories, which Bizzarri categorised as currently “super tiny for Gucci.”

According to Bizzarri, Gucci’s current beauty business, which accounts for less than 7 percent of overall revenue, is dwarfed by other luxury players. Perhaps part of the reason behind this is the red tape involved in Gucci’s beauty product licencing, which was initially a part of the P&G stable, when it launched a beauty line to great fanfare in 2014, before it was sold to Coty in 2016.

Just last month, Gucci launched a new Instagram account (@guccibeauty) curated by creative director Alessandro Michele, another signal of the company’s renewed interest in the sector.

“Also, I don't think that we are still capped in the other product categories,” Bizzarri adds, claiming sustainable growth in the long-term for the brand will depend on continued creativity, fostering its talent pool and taking risks.

“It is not just a matter of how much you grow, but the way in which you grow,” he says.

When prompted by Amed to explain Gucci’s strong China market performance (it has doubled since 2015), Bizzarri identified a crucial change among Chinese consumers. While traditional touchstones around luxury like heritage were very important to Chinese shoppers, now they “are not so relevant.”

“I think in China [the] ‘here and now’ is more important than the past and that resonates a lot from what we started doing three years ago in Gucci [by] focusing on the future and not on the past, and moving from rational values that are typically quality and craftsmanship, to emotional values [and] something that is more related to experience, connection and communities.

"So that has been true as a strategy for the brand from the very beginning, but in China the younger generation has been the first one in catching these new trends of Gucci, it has been even more relevant,” he added.

But it was Bizzarri’s perspective on localisation that was the one that caught most of the attention in the room. Suggesting that localisation goes beyond product and marketing, he explained that trust in his local China team is what will propel the brand forward the furthest and the fastest.

“We listen a lot to our Chinese team because luckily, they are super talented and then we need to use them. It was Steve Jobs who would say that there's no [point] to hire talent in your company if you then you tell them what to do…The more we go forward, the more we need to reduce the control freak attitude that is typical of the Western managers.

“I mean that is a fake control [anyway]. You don't control anything because at Gucci we have 14,000 people. How can I think of controlling 14,000 people? Impossible. You need to rely on the personalities and the strengths of the people that work for you and try to retain them. And you can [only] retain them, especially if they are talented, if they have autonomy [and let them] take risks and make [some] mistakes [along the way].”

Designers and industry executives remember Wanda Ferragamo, who died Friday at age 96.

Passionate. Intense. Kind. A flag bearer for Made in Italy.

Those were all words used by industry members to describe Wanda Miletti Ferragamo, who died Friday afternoon in Fiesole, Italy, near her beloved Florence. The matriarch of the Salvatore Ferragamo family, and honorary president of the company since 2006, was 96. She was the wife of the shoe designer and innovator Salvatore Ferragamo, who created the platform and cage heels and was instrumental in developing the company after her husband’s death in 1960, which left her not only their company but a widow with six children: Fiamma, Giovanna, Fulvia, Ferruccio, Massimo and Leonardo.

Giovanna, Ferruccio, who is president of the fashion group, Leonardo and Massimo issued an internal company memo on Friday relating the passing of their mother “with enormous pain, together with our children and all of our family.” Calling their mother an “extraordinary person,” they said “her precious teachings and the memory of her will be for all of us an example of rectitude and great passion for life.”

“I built on Salvatore’s very solid foundations,” Miletti Ferragamo told WWD in 2006. “He was a very special person, a man with great humanity, feelings and passion. He studied anatomy and learned that the weight of the body falls vertically on the arch of the foot. That’s how he made such great yet comfortable shoes.”

But behind Salvatore’s artistry was his wife’s business abilities, and her leading role at the company was rare for a woman in that era.

“She was always incredibly attentive to others, she was very generous and was approachable in a sweet, kind and intense manner,” said Michele Norsa, who held the role of chief executive officer of Ferragamo for a decade until 2016. “She always tried to make things easier, and she really helped me join the family. She had a magic ability to read people. She had a very clear vision of the company and whenever there was a need to make a decision she always knew the direction beyond financial considerations. She was an important presence in meetings, always attentive and she had a heightened sense of duty.”

Asked how she felt when the company went public in 2011, under his lead, Norsa said Ferragamo “was very proud of the listing and of the fact that the company was growing.”

“Generous, curious and humorous” is how Laudomia Pucci, Emilio Pucci’s daughter and image director of the Florentine fashion house, described Miletti Ferragamo. “When Salvatore Ferragamo died, my father took Fiamma under his wing, and when my dad passed away, Wanda did the same with myself with love, care and generosity. She has always supported us and when we hosted the first event of “Les Journées Particulières” with LVMH she came to Granaiolo, Italy, to see the archives because she was such a curious woman. She also had an incredible sense of humor — I remember one day she told me ‘You know, sometimes designers do ugly things and I have my own museum of horrors.’ She was just incredible.”

“Today we have lost an incredible woman, a unique personality in the fashion industry and an icon of the Made in Italy [movement],” said Alberta Ferretti. “She was a wife who decades ago demonstrated how a woman can successfully balance family and work. As a woman, I think we all really owe her. I’ve never met her personally, but through the words and the examples of her children, who over the years have carried out her values and her vision.”

“Mrs. Ferragamo and her children personify the healthy, classic Italian family with values based on work and love,” said Valentino Garavani. “All my admiration for her, who was able to create and pursue this beautiful example of family business.”

“Wanda Ferragamo was a pioneer and ambassador for Italian fashion,” said Fendi accessories and men’s wear creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi. “A great matriarch and tireless entrepreneur, she never stopped to actively contribute with unchanged passion to the success of her company, in a way that was very rare for women in the Sixties. Her work, dedication and passion will be an example for every generation.”

“She has been, with her kind discretion, a great entrepreneur, a symbol of that will to consider fashion an expression of beauty,” said Giorgio Armani. “The passing of Wanda Ferragamo leaves a great void, but her indelible mark remains on our country’s fashion industry.”

“Signora Wanda Ferragamo has been one of the best and strongest symbols of the Made in Italy with a long-lasting leadership of entrepreneurship and illuminated vision: She will be deeply missed by the fashion system and by our country,” said Gildo Zegna, ceo of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group.

“The fashion industry lost an incredible soul and entrepreneur,” said Gucci president and ceo Marco Bizzarri. “Without a doubt, Mrs. Ferragamo gave a contribution not only to the family business but also to the city of Florence. With her creative leadership, she brought her hometown to the epicenter of the international fashion scene.”

Florence-based Raffaello Napoleone, ceo of Pitti Immagine and a human resources manager at Ferragamo from 1986 to 1989, said in that role he often met with Miletti Ferragamo, who “always followed the arrival of new employees at the company with special attention as she was very much aware of the importance of choosing any collaborator well. I was immediately impressed by the particular attention she paid to men and women selling in the stores, then and now essential vehicle of the company’s image with customers.” Napoleone also emphasized her “passion for details and for things well done,” and her “affectionate and sincere participation to the personal life of collaborators and of their families without ever forgetting a word, a card, a kind thought with her wishes,” noting, in particular, her appreciation “for what Pitti Immagine had done and was doing for Florence and for Italian and international fashion.” He concluded with one of Ferragamo’s musts: “It was essential to never waste anything and to use pencils until the end!”

“She was an extraordinary woman. She founded with her husband a wonderful dynasty, which is so well representative of Made in Italy, not only from an aesthetic point of view but also in terms of lifestyle, as it highlights Italian family values,” said Carlo Capasa, president of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. “She will be missed and leaves her children, which are a strong, tangible sign of her testament in terms of skills and commitment to work.”

“She was just incredible. She has been an example of how to keep together such as a big family with so many different, big personalities,” said Mario Boselli, honorary president of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. “She took on the responsibility of guiding a company and a family with love and dedication. I really loved her and she has always made me feel loved. During my seven years at Pitti Immagine [as president], she always showed me her gratitude for what I was doing. I feel very sad today.”

“I’m so sad to hear that Mrs. Wanda Ferragamo passed away. I’m sure everybody is aware of her unique role as protagonist of the fashion industry and ambassador of the Made in Italy,” said Vogue Italia editor in chief Emanuele Farneti. “Most of all, I want to highlight the extraordinary profile of a woman who in the Sixties succeeded to impose herself with her intuition and perseverance in a world ruled by men.”

Massimiliano Giornetti, a former Ferragamo creative director until 2016, defined Miletti Ferragamo “the Lady of Fashion” and gifted “with extraordinary intelligence, a proverbial strength of character and a pioneering economic-commercial vision. She represented a model and a reference for generations of women and entrepreneurs. Deus ex machina, a family woman able — at the age of 39, [being] a widow and with six young children — to carry on with tenacity and an almost prodigious strength the development and the dream of one of the most [iconic] Italian companies.”

“Her stories were fascinating, her anecdotes [were] suggestive: To talk with her was a precious gift. But I remember the reverence that her powerful presence demanded, she had a magical aura that you immediately felt crossing the threshold of Palazzo Spini Feroni. Her unmistakable scent permeated the air, immediately putting you in a state of awe.

“Her pearl necklace and her [demure] makeup [were a must],” Giornetti continued. “Impeccable in her tailleurs perfectly matching her beloved silk scarves, there wasn’t a fold in her clothes as in her pride. For her, firmness was vision and pride. This is the most precious lesson I learnt from Mrs. Ferragamo, not to conform myself to what happens and to what others think and not to bend myself to the ugliness that surrounds us. To let myself be inspired by nature and its harmony.”

The 11th child of 14 in a poor family, Salvatore made his first pair of shoes for the first communion of one of his sisters and became hooked on his métier. After studying shoemaking in Naples, Ferragamo opened a small shop. In 1914, he immigrated to Boston, where one of his brothers worked in a cowboy boot factory. He and his brothers then moved to California, first Santa Barbara and later Hollywood. He opened a shoe repair shop, and his own made-to-measure shoes became popular with the stars. He even studied anatomy at the University of Southern California to find out how to make more comfortable shoes. His autobiography was called “Shoemaker of Dreams.” Among his clients were Elizabeth Taylor, Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, the Duchess of Windsor and Queen Elena of Italy. His daughter, Fiamma, later created another firm classic, the Vara pump, with a round toe, grosgrain ribbon detail and gold signature buckle. She was considered to have inherited her father’s talent as a shoemaker, but she predeceased her mother, dying at the age of 57 in 1998. Her sister Fulvia Visconti Ferragamo died in April, aged 67. She was creative director of men’s and women’s silk accessories, including foulards and ties — one of the storied core businesses of the house.

At 17, Fiamma had taken the reins of design. “We were also very supported by our U.S. clients, who liked matching shoes and bags,” her mother said. “I was never into that look, but the bags were a big success.” Fulvia moved to Milan with her husband, Giuseppe Visconti, where she was not far from the silk industry of Como, and she came up with the idea of doing silk scarves, also a winner. Men’s and women’s fashion and other products were added later. The Palazzo Spini Feroni, which Salvatore bought in the Thirties, later became the Ferragamo museum.

Miletti Ferragamo herself continued working well into her 90s because, as she said to WWD, “I cannot not go [to the office], and I am passionate and the time flies when I am in my office.” At another point, she said, “They say work keeps our mind trained and young. Plus, there’s still so much to do. Our clients must continue to feel at ease with our products, conceived to exalt their femininity.” She still traveled from her estate Villa Maria in Fiesole into Florence each day to work and regularly attended the brand’s fashion shows in Milan, until most recently, always impeccably dressed and razor-sharp.

Throughout her life, she received many prestigious awards in Italy and globally. She was named “International Woman of the Year” at the Louisville, Ky., meeting of the Committee of 200, an association of women manager, in 1982; she was named a Knight of Industry by the Italian Republic in 1987; received the Fashion Group Award in 1991, and followed in 1992 by the “Mary Ann Magnin Award” in San Francisco. In 1995, she was bestowed the title of “Honorary Officer of British Empire.” In 2004, she was named a Cavaliere di Gran Croce by the Italian government.

Caesars isn’t interested in any of Tillman Fertitta’s Golden Nuggets.

Fertitta — the billionaire owner of the Houston Rockets — invited Caesars Entertainment earlier this month to merge with his own gaming empire, which includes the Golden Nugget casino chain.

But Caesars’ board — which includes reps from billionaire Leon Black’s Apollo Management and David Bonderman’s TPG — is expected to unanimously reject Fertitta’s deal as soon as this week, believing it would saddle the casino giant with too much debt, two sources close to the situation told The Post.

News of Fertitta’s overture last week sent Caesar’s shares soaring 18 percent over two days, leaving them to close at $10.20 on Friday, giving Caesar’s a market cap of $6.8 billion.

That looks like a big bite for the Texas tycoon, whose net worth is estimated at just $4.5 billion. Caesar’s still has $9 billion in debt after emerging from bankruptcy a year ago, and Fertitta’s deal would add to that load, sources said.

“That is certainly not attractive,” a source with knowledge of Caesars’ thinking said, noting that it was a $25 billion debt load from a 2008 leveraged buyout that had plunged Caesars into bankruptcy in 2015.

Instead, Caesars — which also owns the Harrah’s and Bally’s casinos, as well as the Planet Hollywood chain — is in advanced talks to buy a few properties from Jacks Entertainment, a Midwest-based gaming concern that owns six casinos in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Detroit.

Indeed, some sources close to Caesars believe that word of Fertitta’s offer got leaked by hedge funds like Canyon Partners, which owns a 10-percent Caesar’s stake, and HG Vora Capital, which The Post first reported last month had built a 4.9 percent stake in Caesars.

Impatient with Caesars’ sagging stock, the hedgies are looking to derail the discussions with Jacks, even as they look to prod Caesars into a deal to buy Fertitta’s gaming company in a reverse merger, according to sources.

“I think some people are hoping this puts Jacks on hold,” one source close to the talks confirmed.

Nevertheless, the Caesars board, which includes partners from Apollo and TPG, is “united” about completing the Jacks deal, which could be valued at more than $1 billion, according to the source.

Under the deal, Caesars would buy the casino operations, while Caesar’s separately traded real estate arm, Vici Properties, would buy the land under them and lease it back to them in a long-term deal, a source close to those talks said.

Insiders likewise noted that a Jacks deal could make a case for the continued leadership of Caesars Chief Executive Mark Frissora, whose contract comes up in February.

Caesars declined to comment. Jacks did not return calls.

Acknowledges recent media speculation about potential changes to our capital structure. The Company regularly receives various offers and expressions of interest from third parties, but it is the Company’s policy not to comment on market rumors.In the normal course of business, the Board of Directors and its relevant committees periodically consider questions relating to the optimal capital structure of our Company. The Board is committed to good corporate governance and, in the exercise of its fiduciary duties, evaluates any potential steps with a view to protecting the long-term interests of the Company and all of its shareholders and stakeholders. It should also be noted that any corporate actions affecting the rights of holders of any class of sharesare subject to robust governance policies, which include not only Board approval, but also the approval of holders of 75% of the Company’s Class A shares.