Zegna beats analyst forecasts and opens 15 stores — most of them in the US
Sales in the Americas rose 22%. In Europe, 1.6%. A fourteenfold gap that explains the group’s entire strategy for the year ahead.
The Italian group Ermenegildo Zegna has reported second-quarter results: organic revenue rose 11% to €517m ($590m). Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had expected €493m — meaning the house beat consensus by almost 5%.
The main engine is the Americas. Sales in the region added 22% on an organic basis. The executive chairman Gildo Zegna puts this down to demand for personalisation and made-to-measure services at the core brand, and to the effect of the show on the Malibu pier in Los Angeles.
“We plan to open 14 to 15 stores this year — Zegna, Thom Browne and Tom Ford — and more than half of them in the US, because we are confident in the strength of the American luxury market,” he said after the results were published. Some of the new openings will be offset by a global network optimisation programme: some places will open, others will close.
Against 22% growth in the Americas, Europe’s 1.6% looks close to a standstill. The reason is not Europeans themselves but tourists: the flow of Asian travellers has weakened, and that hits the whole sector, not only Zegna.
The Middle East stayed in positive territory despite the conflict between the US and Iran. Greater China grew 8.6% in the second quarter. The flagship Zegna brand continues to pull the whole group’s sales upwards.