Marcolin creates joint venture in Russia

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Dec 16, 2014

Following an agreement in China, Marcolin is now accelerating its development in Russia. Having created a joint venture last month in China with Ginko Group, the Italian eyewear company Marcolin, which has been owned by the French private equity fund PAI Partners since 2012, has now announced the creation of a joint venture in Russia with the distributor Sover-M. 

In a statement, the group announced that it has signed a joint venture agreement with Victoria Chizhova, founder and CEO of Sover-M, in order to strengthen its presence in the Russian market through direct distribution. Marcolin will control 51% of Sover-M, according to the statement.

Sover-M is a major player in the Russian market, where it has distributed luxury eyewear for over 20 years. The company also has an exclusive right to supervise production and distribution of eyewear collections under the Russian trademark Valentin Yudashkin. 

The move is part of the eyewear company’s larger plans for international expansion. "The signing of this agreement is a further step in the direction already taken by Marcolin to combine extreme care of our brands portfolio with increasingly direct, selective presence in the major global markets," said Valerio Giacobbi, Marcolin’s general manager of sales, marketing, and business strategies. 

Marcolin, which produces and distributes eyewear collections under license for several major brands including Tom Ford, Montblanc, Balenciaga, Roberto Cavalli, Dsquared2 and Diesel, recently signed a licensing agreement with Ermenegildo Zegna and Emilio Pucci.