Borbonese's sustainable future

Sustainability and Italian and international expansion remain two focus objectives in Borbonese's development strategy. The historic Turin-based handbag and accessories brand, which aims to end the current fiscal year with a 10-15% increase in revenues, will obtain nine green certifications by 2023, having recently published its first sustainability report for the year 2020/21. A commitment that will see the company devote itself to, among other activities, selecting its suppliers through environmental criteria, responsible management of raw materials, green packaging and staff protection. Also in the crosshairs is foreign trade, which may come to weigh as much as 30% in 2025. Not forgetting, on the product side, a collaboration that will soon be unveiled, as ceo Alessandro Pescara explained to MFF.

How will the fiscal year end for the brand?

It was a complicated year. In the first quarter the general contraction in consumption was still very strong following the Omicron variant and then the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. For us, the retail side was the one that suffered the biggest reduction in terms of volume, but we still estimate to close the year with a 10-15% growth in overall sales over 2021, surpassing pre-Covid-19 levels with +7% over 2019.

What strategies have you been working on?

Brands in our field, the accessible luxury sector, have always worked with a lot of volume during sales, but now continuous discount policies have deferred consumer purchases over the year. For our part, we have managed to work well on marginality. We tried to reduce the amount of product discounting. And on a smaller amount of sales, we have increased the average receipt.

How do you envision the future of Borbonese considering the current international scenario?

For now, we have not encountered any problems on the supply chain, we work with an early timing. As for price increases, many of our competitors have increased pricing, so the end consumer will pay more, and this will inevitably lead to a further contraction in consumption. As I explained earlier, we are working on a high-quality, durable product by reducing discounting. In parallel, we are investing in channels such as digital and communication to get closer and closer to the consumer, engaging them in order to apply point-of-sale and product improvements.

In which way are you expanding the path towards sustainability?

Sustainability is a mantra for us, and we are incorporating it from an internal awareness perspective. This year we came out with the first report, developing the compliance discourse, from the governance part to workplace protection, up to diversity inclusion quality certification. In total we will have nine green certifications coming up between April and June 2023. We aim for less impact on the environment for product development, for which we use nylon from fishing nets or plastic bottles (which accounts for 80% of Borbonese’s total sales, ed.). For the processing of the finished product, we also aim to reduce CO2 emissions, we are studying the impact with our suppliers.

What goals do you have for foreign development in the future?

Abroad sales currently account for 10-12% of the turnover, we aim at making it 30% by 2025-2026. The current most important markets include Italy, Switzerland and Germany. We are working on Germany, but also on America, where we have launched a dedicated e-commerce.

After the opening in Corso Venezia in Milan, will you open more stores?

We will open a flagship store in Via Mazzini in Verona, Italy, by 2023, and we will open some pop-up stores in Germany. We are now present with about thirty direct stores spread among Italy and Switzerland and over 400 wholesale doors in 10 countries around the world.

Are you working on new collaborations?

Every year we aim at doing more collaborations and they do not necessarily have to be complementary brands to us. For Spring/Summer 2023 we chose Swarovski. They are increasing the perception on the end consumer, stimulating talent interaction and more internationalization of our brand, so we plan to continue the partnership. The next one, for now still top secret, will be unveiled in February because it will be developed on Fall/Winter 2023-2024.

Do you have plans for prêt-à-porter collections?

Borbonese was born as an accessories company. Clothing, for which we do two collections a year, is and will remain a niche and communication element, a key in creating the brand’s imagery.

What are currently your best-selling bags?

The top models are essentially two, the Epoque, currently in the advertisement campaigns, and the Cortina. (All rights reserved)