Diesel Jeans Founder Creating Italian Version of French Luxury Conglomerates LVMH, Kering

Diesel founder Renzo Rosso told Financial Times he envisions his Italian luxury fashion empire, including sister brands Jil Sander and Marni, as one that’s modeled after — and will compete with — Kering, LVMH and other large, well-known names in the space.

Rosso, chair of holding company Only The Brave, founded Diesel in 1978 when he was 23 and today employs more than 6,000 workers at seven fashion brands around the world, according to the report Sunday (July 10).

“Italy doesn’t have a domestic luxury conglomerate like the French ones,” he told FT. “My plan is to create one.” That includes a stock market listing and plans to hire bankers to advise him, the report said.

“Of course our [market capitalization] will be different from the big French groups, but my ambition is to show that Italian brands can come together and strengthen each other,” Rosso said. “It’s not easy, but we are on the lookout for brands that can strengthen our luxury positioning. We will demonstrate to the world that even Italy can have its own luxury conglomerate.”

The European Union banned the export of goods worth more than 300 euros ($302) to Russia in March, putting a crimp in luxury fashion sales in that region, but Russia is only the 14th-largest global trade partner for Italian luxury labels, according to Italy’s national fashion chamber, with 1.4 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in luxury goods exported there last year.

Russia and Ukraine account for about 2% of OTB’s annual revenues, at 1.53 billion euros ($1.54 billion) in 2021, up from 1.3 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in 2020. The company has no stores in either country.

Japan, meanwhile, makes up about 25% of OTB’s total revenue. The company opened a store in South Korea last year, and about one-third of its investments in the next three years will be focused on Chinese expansion, looking to double the 80 stores and 1,000 employees there today by 2024.

Related: Gucci Parent Kering Rides eCommerce Explosion to Record Revenue in 2021

Online sales for Gucci parent company Kering were up 55% in 2021, a key driver in the company’s overall upward trend across its annual earnings results, reported in February.

Also read: LVMH Achieves Double-Digit Growth in Most Groups, Regions

Meanwhile, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton saw a 29% spike in its 2022 first-quarter revenue, hitting 18 billion euros ($19.5 billion) for the first three months of the year, according to a press release in April.