Pambianco: study of eyewear licenses

According to data from Pambianco Licensing reported in today's Il Sole 24 Ore, in a little over two years the five big names in the eyewear world have slipped another 11 'labels' under license into their portfolios, bringing the total to 74 out of a possible 300. The producers' own-label brands have however dropped from 25 to 23.

There has been an increase in the bipolarization process by fashion houses: Safilo and Luxottica have both strengthened the number and weight of their label portfolios.

'The concentration of licenses', commented Carlo Pambianco, president of the company of the same name, 'is due to the distribution strength of the groups which the labels in the stable insist on. Over the last two years, Safilo has more than doubled its licenses by snatching Giorgio Armani (225 million in revenues) away from Luxottica and acquiring the distribution of American stars like Jennifer Lopez, Liz Clairbone, Stella McCartney. Luxottica recovered by snatching Prada, Miu Miu and Jill Sander from De Rigo and acquiring Versace and Versus. Metzler (from the union between Italy's Filos and United Optical with Germany's Metzler) acquired Revlon, Paloma Picasso, Longines and Van Laack. Marcolin wanted partial reciprocation and released some licenses, including Fornarina, but brought home such prestigious brands as Timberland and Kenneth Cole (as well as The North Face, Montblanc and Costume National, ed.), which this year are worth - according to Ubm - a 5% increase in revenues. However, Marcolin has kept hold of very trendy brands like Dolce & Gabbana (worth 63 million, 38% of revenues), Cavalli and Miss Sixty'.

But five labels have slipped out of De Rigo's portfolio (including Prada, Miu Miu, Jill Sanders and Helmut Lang) and its own brand, Rolling, is no longer used, but strong brands such as Sting and Police remain. 'With the departure of Prada' commented Maurizio Dessolis, financial director of De Rigo, 'we've lost revenues of 30 million, but the label has not produced appreciable profits for many years.'

The article in Il Sole 24 Ore did not mention it, but Allison was also a protagonist last year, having augmented its portfolio with the Les Copains, Malo, John Richmond, and Vivienne Westwood licenses.

Lastly, the newspaper spoke of the 'war games' being played by the big names which, for a few years now, have extended to cover optical retail chains and to date have involved Luxottica (mainly in the US and Australia) and De Rigo (in Europe). Leonardo Del Vecchio's 2,500 American stores could be joined by the 2,900 (in Usa, Canada and the Caribbean) belonging to Cole National for which a takeover bid of 600 million is pending. According to Morgan Stanley, Luxottica now controls 15.9% of the American outlets, which would rise to 23.5% with Cole National.