VERSACE is set to cut 25 per cent of its workforce, around 350 jobs, as part of a restructuring plan initiated by the brand's new chief executive officer Gian Giacomo Ferraris. The strategy aims to streamline all aspects of the Versace business, returning it to profitability in 2011.
Ferraris has targeted "non-core" areas of the brand, such as logistics, insisting that such areas can be outsourced at better prices without compromising on quality. Most of the redundancies will be in the Milan head office although there will also be losses at several Italian-based factories.
Ferraris assured WWD that he plays no part in the creative process, but did confess he advised Donatella Versace to ramp up the brand's heritage of sexiness, prints and colour in her spring/summer 2010 offering - which she duly did (see the evidence here).
The job cuts follow Versace's withdrawal from Japan earlier this month (read the full story here), although the company insists that the rest of its 85 standalone stores will remain open. Versace follows brands including Burberry, Cartier and Swarovski in making layoffs due to the recession. Chanel also cut 200 jobs earlier this year as part of a similar consolidation measure.
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