Luxury retail brand Louis Vuitton, part of Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton group (LVMH), opened last week its first store in Romania as a result of dealing with a very high number of Romanian clients in its stores elsewhere in the region, Jean-Marc Gallot, president of Louis Vuitton in Europe, told “We had a lot of Romanian clients in our stores in Italy, Germany and Austria,” .
Romania started to look attractive five years ago, and three years back LV representatives visited Romania for the first time. More recently they started to look for a good location for a store in the city. Following a EUR 1 million investment, LV opened a 130-sqm store in JW Marriott hotel’s shopping galleria in Bucharest. The store was initially set to open at the end of last year, but the delay was caused by works to upgrade the location which used to host three tenants.
Gallot, on his third visit to Romania last week, said the move marked the beginning of the luxury story in Bucharest, and that he expected other luxury brands to follow LV to Romania.
The store in Bucharest, which offers a range of products including bags, shoes, jewelry and sunglasses, is similar to LV’s stores in Italy, said Gallot. Without ruling out the possibility of expanding with other stores in Romania, the firm will focus on this first store and wait to see how it performs on the market.
In Bucharest , another luxury store works , “Versace” the single brand comparably in the franchise system. Other fashion houses , Dolce&Gabbana or Giorgio Armani, are active in some magazine profile, not with their units.
The list of luxury brands entering the fresh Romania is not signed here, even if it’s not very long. The first store outside of Italy Mengotti group, specialized in selling clothes, shoes and accessories house, was opened in March on Calea Victoriei, following an investment of 1.2 million. Multibrandul (700 sqm) sells luxury accessories collections of Prada, Valentino, Dolce Gabbana, Versace and Giorgio Armani. “Depending on how this store will go, we will open in May and others. The second multibrand of Bucharest will probably be the Lipscani, “said Adriano Mengotti, president of the company, adding that the plan has yet to open three stores outside Bucharest in the next five years. Mengotti Group today owns a network of 12 stores in Italy, last year recording sales of 30 million.
Brand group Moet Hennesy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), Louis Vuitton has over 400 stores worldwide in 59 countries and includes leather goods, shoes, watches, jewellery, clothes, accessories, writing instruments and sunglasses. According to the company’s financial report, in the first quarter of 2008, LVMH has achieved revenues of 4 billion euros, 5.3% more than the corresponding period a year trecut.Mengotti today owns a network of 12 stores in Italy, last year recording sales of 30 million.
