The Italian fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo intends to focus more on markets in Asia, which already account for some 50% of the group's earnings, CEO Michele Norsa said on Thursday.
"Asia is still an emerging market where there is a demand for status products like luxury watches. It is also a market where our brand name is extraordinarily strong," Norsa said.
"We have seen significant overall growth in the first months of the year and by December we will open seven new stores in America, six in China and three in Russia," Norsa added.
Norsa was speaking here on the sidelines of the Pitti Uomo men's fashion show where he and Chairman Ferruccio Ferragamo presented the group's new licensing agreement with the Timex Group to produce and distribute a line of luxury watches.
The agreement, Norsa observed, "practically completes our strategy to diversify our product line and we expect this new venture to create a turnover of 150 million euros within five years".
The new Timex-Ferragamo line of watches will be presented next April at the Baselworld trade fair, a leading event for the watch and jewellery industry.
Ferruccio Ferragamo, son of company founder Salvatore, said the group expects to be listed on the stock market before the end of 2008.
The decision to be listed, he explained, followed Norsa's arrival last October, which initiated an acceleration of the brand's development.
