Active in 109 countries
Nearly 20 % more turnover is the result of opening 89 new stores last year and entering new markets like Brazil, Hong Kong and Chili. It also grew its retail presence in France, Italy and Belgium, but the biggest drive comes from online sources. It has added new web shops in Japan and Hong Kong, which bumps its online presence to 20 countries.
Desigual is active in 109 countries worldwide with 405 own stores by the end of 2013 and it has a presence in 11,000 multi-brand boutiques and it has 2,500 warehouse corners.
‘New’ CEO…
Analysts believe Desigual’s huge success can be attributed to Manel Jadraque, who stepped into the limelight in 1992 when he ran Louis Vuitton’s Parisian operations. He returned to his home country in 1999 to become Loewe’s director of purchases and planning. LVMH had purchased Loewe, a leatherwear producer, three years earlier.
He left LVHM in 2004 to become Desigual’s director of operations and quickly rose the ranks: product management, European retail, North American expansion and so on and so forth. He became managing director in 2012 and has been the official CEO since March 2013.
…and new investor
Jadraque has big plans for Desigual and that is why he attracted an additional investor, French investment group Eurazeo, which paid 285 million euro in March to get nearly 10 % of the Spanish fashion label’s shares.
That stake values the company at 2.56 billion euro, four times more than its worth in 2012, according to Spanish business paper Expansión. That means it is currently worth more than Mango (2.22 billion euro), even though several others are valued way higher (Inditex at 67.32 billion euro, H&M at 53.78 billion euro and Primark at 36 billion euro).
“Eurazeo fully shares our vision and will be an ambitious and constructive partner to accelerate the development of the company“, the Desigual CEO stated at the participation’s announcement.
That development will not only take place geographically (Europe, United States, Latin America, Japan) but also on the level of the products as Desigual is working on a line of accessories, shoes and even household articles.
