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Home > FRANCE > Coup de projecteur
SCERVINO, STYLE AND ENTERPRISE
Rome - (Adnkronos Multimedia) - The Italian leadership in the fashion sector is considered an incontrovertible fact: dozens of brands are successful all over the world, and account for a huge overall turnover, of over € 43 billion, despite the difficulties caused by the disadvantageous euro/dollar exchange rate. This then, is a crowded business panorama, and it is hard to believe that there may still be openings, new possibilities and emerging talents. However, as proof of extraordinary creative skill and entrepreneurial intelligence, new initiatives keep on coming, almost as if to demonstrate that Italy has inexhaustible resources in this sector. A case in point is that of Ermanno Scervino, a Florentine brand established in 1997, which in only eight years has consolidated its reputation on the domestic and international markets with extraordinary speed. In this case the figures speak for themselves: the company's turnover doubled in its first year and went from € 13 million in 2000 to 35 million in 2004.
We asked Ermanno Scervino, the designer who gave his name to the brand, and Toni Scervino, sole director, the strategy behind this extraordinary growth.
"We immediately realised," comments Toni Scervino, "that to develop the brand it was necessary to make large investments in retail. This made it possible to ensure a direct presence in many cities of art and exclusive resorts with the opening of 11 own-brand boutiques and numerous shop corners in Italy and abroad. The aim was to stimulate the demand in the most consolidated international markets, such as Japan and the United States, and at the same time, to take advantage of the opportunities on the new frontiers of luxury, Eastern Europe, Russia, China and Korea".
And on the organisational level? It's not easy to manage a company with this kind of growth rate.
"From an organisational point of view," continues Toni Scervino, "the company, despite solid growth maintained over time, chose to keep an extremely flexible and streamlined structure, based on the idea that the product is a creative object, which can follow up and develop the intuitions which characterise every collection using consolidated process know-how. The company model we chose was built around specialised units: design, image and communication, financial control, sales, integrated production and logistics, customer service. These are open and dynamic organizational units, able to act quickly and create problem-solving approaches which has allowed us to always be extremely efficient on the market".
How have you managed such a fast transition from small enterprise to brand of international fame?
"We have tried to be an industrial reality with the heart of craftsmen," says Ermanno Scervino, "also developing a production structure which is entirely Italian, built around specialisation and flexibility, so that we can ensure the highest standards of product quality. Our products are all strictly made in Italy and produced in the facilities owned by the group, those of Anna srl for knitwear and Maiani Couture srl for off-the-peg clothes, and at a limited number of specialised workshops, with which the company has consolidated relationships. The aim is to exploit to the full the skills of the local productive fabric, responding effectively to the overall needs of the market in terms of products and services".
What are the prospects for the future?
"We believe," concludes Toni Scervino, "that the control of distribution is the crucial factor in competitive strategy. In 2004 we strengthened the direct presence of the brand by opening own-brand shops and in-shop shops in the main capitals of luxury. After Saint Tropez, Moscow and Courchevel, in 2005 boutiques will be opened in Rome and Paris".
Contact:
Ermanno Scervino spa
Viale Michelangelo,74
50125 Firenze
Tel: +39 055.6580620
www.ermannoscervino.it
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