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Valentino reported a 3 per cent decline year-on-year (on a constant basis) in full-year 2023 earnings to €1.35 billion on Tuesday. The results come “in a challenging global context for the luxury industry”, the brand wrote in a statement.
The previous year, by contrast, saw full-year revenues of €1.4 billion in 2022, up 10 per cent compared to the previous year on a constant basis.
The Mayhoola-owned brand highlighted Asia Pacific and Japan as growth drivers, flagging that the back half of the year was challenging for Europe, while in this period the Americas showed “encouraging signs”. Wholesale revenues dropped 12 per cent, which Valentino says is in line with its strategy to reduce its wholesale presence.
Direct channels accounted for 63 per cent of revenues, up slightly from 2022’s 62 per cent. Operating profits dropped 18 per cent, the brand added, to €99 million.
The full-year results come on the heels of the much-rumoured announcement that Alessandro Michele would succeed long-time creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, who has been at the helm since 2008. Michele has been in the role since 2 April.
Valentino CEO Jacopo Venturini previously worked with Michele at Gucci. At the time of Michele’s appointment, he said: “I am certain that the reinterpretation of the maison’s couture codes and the heritage created by Mr Valentino Garavani, combined with Alessandro’s extraordinary vision, will bring us moments of great emotion and will translate into irresistibly desirable objects.”
Beauty and fragrance (licensed to L’Oréal) is a bright spot, up 42 per cent year-on-year. In April, they announced the hire of yet another ex-Gucci exec, Claudia Marcocci, who collaborated with Michele at Gucci Beauty. Her appointment as president of Valentino Beauty, effective 6 May, provides a glimpse of the brand-wide impact the incoming creative director is likely to have.
Much will hinge on the reception to Michele’s debut Spring/Summer 2025 collection, which will be unveiled during September’s Paris Fashion Week. Valentino will be banking on the new recruit’s “irresistibly desirable objects” in the year ahead to generate sales — much like at Gucci. Under Michele’s tenure, Gucci revenues almost tripled from €3.5 billion in 2014 to €9.73 billion in 2022.
Analysts are watching. “The question is whether Alessandro will be able to invent a new Valentino that will not remind us of Gucci, but will be original and powerful instead,” says Bernstein senior analyst Luca Solca.
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