MILAN — Italian advanced contemporary women’s wear label Forte_Forte is not holding back on the plans for expansion set in motion in 2018 and is still on a growth trajectory despite the challenges of the pandemic.
The company as a clear path ahead marked by the optimism of the team and Roberta Benaglia, chief executive officer of investment fund Style Capital, which in April 2017 acquired a 51 percent stake in the brand.
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“[Financial] markets generally soar when decisions are awaited and drop when those events materialize. The market is driven by expectations and we as financial investors have the same approach. We bet on the future when it has yet to materialize but there are all the prerequisites for it to happen,” Benaglia told WWD.
She expects a global consumption rebound in the second half of 2021 and believes this is the right moment to make investments and gain market share from other brands that have been hit harder by the pandemic.
To wit, Forte_Forte which is known for a feminine and laid back aesthetic rich in fluid silhouettes, has opened a new store on Rome’s Via Borgognona in the fourth quarter and plans to add new units in resort destinations Forte dei Marmi, Italy, and Cannes, France, in the first half of 2021.
“Overall our retail network is not losing money and still breaks even. We’re proud of this and we believe that it’s reasonable to continue investing because we are convinced that when better times come we will be in the right conditions to have a performative retail division,” Benaglia said.
The retail push might seem counterintuitive as the world transitions toward online shopping, Benaglia acknowledged. Yet she is convinced that Forte_Forte with five directly operated stores in Milan, Paris, London, Madrid and Rome and one in Tokyo with a local partner, in addition to international shops-in-shop, still has room for growth.
“The shift toward digital is not compromising our retail expansion plan that leans on doubling the number of stores in two years,” Benaglia offered. To be sure, Forte_Forte is also registering triple-digit growth in its e-commerce operations but the executive has a clear point of view about that channel, which the brand started in late 2018 and which accounts for 10 percent of turnover.
As of March 31, the brand generated 22 million euros and Benaglia forecast a contraction of between 10 and 20 percent to around 20 million euros in 2020. An optimist at heart, her projection is to reach 30 million euros in two years.