Pirelli steps into luxury retail

Friday, 14 October 2011 03:48 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Italy’s Pirelli, the world’s fifth-largest tire maker, opened its first flagship store recently, targeting wealthy shoppers as resilient to downturn as its tires are in races.

The group, which once showed Marilyn Monroe in a rubber bikini, celebrated its retail debut at a glitzy event held the same day as Italy’s downgrade by Standard & Poor’s.

Asked about the possible impact of the euro zone crisis on the group’s earnings, Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera confirmed Pirelli’s full-year targets.

“We will come through this period strongly,” Provera told Reuters at the 1,500 square meter store, which features a yellow Lamborghini and Formula One video walls amid “tattooed” leather jackets and rubber boots worn as leggings.

Since entering the group in 1986 under the wings of businessman and father-in-law Leopoldo Pirelli, Provera has closed loss-making units and focused on the tire business.

The 2.8 billion euro group generates 65 percent of revenues in emerging countries, while Europe accounts for half, he said.

Since venturing into sanitary articles in 1877, Pirelli has turned unfashionable rubber into an object of luxury desire, selling jackets and shoes to wholesalers.