La Perla gets a new chance

La Perla to
become ‘international beauty brand’

The new
owner has already agreed to invest 110 million euro through his Luxembourgian enterprise
SMS Finance. He wants to make La Perla “a grand international brand for beauty and
female luxury”. His first ambition is to double sales in the first year.

He will
first have to reorganise the company under supervision of the Italian court, as La
Perla was in the first stages of bankruptcy – hence the
supervision by the Italian courts.

Crisis and
banks brought La Perla in trouble

Before the
takeover the fashion label was owned by American investment fund JH Partners,
who had bought it from the founding families in 2008. Shortly thereafter the chain was
confronted by the crisis, which caused sales to drop. Two thirds of sales are
realised in countries that suffered greatly from the economic crisis.

Furthermore,
banks were not eager any more to allow credits, which were necessary to fulfil the business plan involving the opening of 160 new shops in Asia, Russia and Latin
America in the next three year.

La Perla
was founded in 1954 and had sales of 107 million euro last year. The brand is
sold in 134 shops. The new owner Scaglia up to now is known as founder of
telecom company Fastweb.