Three-year plan to
increase profitability
The changes are part of a three-year plan to improve profitability within
the company. The biggest victims are coat label Killer Loop, Australian
retailer Jeans West and subsidiary Playlife. The latter only opened up its first Belgian store in Wijnegem (Antwerp), followed by its first Dutch store in Arnhem last summer.
Benetton Group currently
has 6,500 own stores in 120 countries, with a 1.8 billion euro turnover. Chairman of the board Alessandro Benetton has only been leading the
company (which his father founded in the 1960’s) for a year, and currently sees
no other way to bring the company back on track aside from the proposed
restructuring.
It had already let go 450 people at its main office and Italian logistics
centre at the beginning of 2013. Its Israeli stores have all been closed as
they were unable to become profitable.
(Translated by Gary Peeters)
