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Moncler aims high with projects including new headquarters
There seems to be no stopping Moncler. Boosted by the success of Mondogenius, the global digital event staged during Milan Fashion Week, and the recent entrance on the fragrance market, the Italian luxury down jacket label is busy on a number of fronts. It has notably announced it plans to relocate its Milan headquarters and offices, currently split among three different venues, into a single 38,000 m2 building.
Moncler, which is listed on the Milan stock exchange, has signed a 15-year lease agreement with Covivio, a group created in 2018 by the merger between French real estate specialist Foncière des Régions and Italian company Beni Stabili, for new offices inside a building that will be completed in 2024. Moncler's future headquarters will be part of a new business district called Symbiosis, which is being developed by the Franco-Italian group over a total area of 126,000 m2, part of a larger redevelopment project on Milan’s southern outskirts.
The business district, which is adjacent to the Prada Foundation, will also be home to the new Italian headquarters of French group LVMH in 2022. On the other side of the Prada Foundation, another major urban regeneration project is in the pipeline, that of the Olympic Village for the Milan/Cortina 2026 Winter Games, which is set to be subsequently converted into offices, among them those of Prada.
Moncler’s future headquarters will incorporate avant-garde sustainability and work organisation solutions, with “traditional office space being replaced by hybrid communal areas.” The Italian label's CEO, Remo Ruffini, stated in a press release that “during the pandemic, we understood that we can work anywhere, but we also understood that it is when we are together that we make a difference and release all our energy.”
Ruffini added that “we want to reshape our employees' work experience thanks to a place where people can express their full potential and where creativity and collaboration feel at home. We will continue to embrace and support the needs of our people by offering flexible working conditions, but my dream is to create a place where energy, well-being and attention to the environment are at the heart of everything, and where we all want to be.”
Ruffini has managed to build an empire from a single product, a success that in the last few years has been underscored by a strategy of systematic differentiation from other labels, through a rejuvenated product range and innovative advertising. Breaking out of the traditional mould of shows and collections, Ruffini launched the Genius project in January 2018, giving various designers the opportunity to reinterpret the label's world via a series of capsule collections.
The Genius project's presentations, with their stunning installations, have quickly become some of the most popular events at Milan Fashion Week. On September 25, the label went a step further by staging a unique multidimensional event, both physical and digital, held simultaneously in Milan, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul and hosted by US pop star Alicia Keys.
The event was extraordinarily successful, with record engagement figures, totalling over 299 million viewers worldwide across more than 30 digital platforms, from social media to e-tailers and conventional media. Notably in China, where Moncler recorded 74 million views on Weibo. The 60’ video with the Mondogenius highlights was viewed over 13.5 million times on Moncler's Instagram channel.
Meanwhile, Moncler continues to diversify. The label recently launched its first-ever women’s and men's perfumes, created in partnership with Interparfums. They will be commercialised selectively, via only a limited number of retailers in each Moncler country. A way to enhance the label’s visibility and appeal.
Moncler is also expanding its retail footprint. Last December, it opened a 1,000 m2 flagship in Paris, on the Champs-Elysées, a feat it has now repeated in Milan with the opening of a store extending over 600 m2 in the heart of the city, inside the prestigious, iconic Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.
Sales-wise, the group, which at the end of 2020 bought sportswear label Stone Island, returned to pre-pandemic levels in Q2. For the 2021 financial year, analysts are forecasting a revenue of €1.95 billion and a net income of €375 million.
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