The Medusa brand was acquired for 1.25 billion by the group last April and will officially join the group on December 2. This acquisition, explains Andrea Guerra, « was an opportunity. The owner felt the need to sell, at a time when many competitors were thinking more about themselves than about expansion. We felt ready and seized this opportunity, including in terms of prices ».
With regard to objectives, « aware of the scale of commitment, we are not anticipating tangible results in the short term, but in the long term. »Note the leader. « If we continue to grow, in the future we will be able to reach the 7 billion mark. But it is necessary to carry out a fundamental work on the brand, creativity, positioning, identity, desireability of the product ».
With regard to Gianni Versace's legacy, the essential thing, says Guerra, « It's not to betray history. In the fashion we see today, there is a lot of Versace: it was the first to launch top models, glamour, and bring the fashion closer to popular culture, music. The DNA of the brand is very strong and it is up to us to understand how it should live in 2027, 2030, 2040. There must be a positive tension between brand creativity and its history ».
Lorenzo Bertelli will become executive president of Versace, but his mother, Miuccia Prada, will not deal with the stylistic aspect. « Prada is an important shareholder of the Prada Group, but she will not take care of the stylistic part of Versace », assure Guerra. « There will be people, starting with Lorenzo, who will engage in this journey. It will be a moment of rupture, we can apply some different codes and also experiment; We can measure ourselves at Versace as in a laboratory. And it will also be interesting for Lorenzo. »
For the group, the entry of Versace will be a moment of evolution: « We have two important engines, Prada and Miu Miu, which allowed us to record 20 consecutive quarters of continuous growth. », underlines the CEO. « We are now adding another engine, Versace, which will bear its long-term fruit. We are engaged in a process of evolution; This company has arrived here in one generation thanks to the very strong footprint of its founders, who continue to lead it alongside us. There is a strong history to respect and a succession already drawn, clear to all ». As for Armani, « Today, there is a will and a present family that must come out of a moment of great suffering and define the course, the calendar. From our point of view, there is great respect and we fear nothing, we are very active ».