Former Gucci chief executive officer Marco Bizzarri has successfully transitioned from fashion executive to cofounder and CEO of private equity firm Forel.
He spoke at WWD’s Apparel and Retail CEO Summit with Luisa Zargani, Milan bureau chief, about what interests him now in private equity and the impetus behind changing careers.
After leaving Gucci in September 2023, the former CEO invested in Italian fashion brand Elisabetta Franchi through a personal holding called Nessifashion, and became chairman of the company last April 15. He acquired 23 percent of Franchi through Nessifashion. Nessi is a term of endearment that his father used that means, “Don’t be a fool.”
Also last April, Forel entered into an agreement on behalf of the FARO fund to acquire a majority stake in Italian luxury interior design brand Visionnaire. The executive first dipped his toes into the investment fund pool in 2021, when he took a stake and became a partner in Orienta Capital Partners, which specializes in investments in small- and medium-sized companies with strong growth potential.
During his fashion career, Bizzarri had the opportunity to lead Stella McCartney, Bottega Veneta and Gucci, all of which had different cultures, different creative directors, and different personalities. He said that Gucci really matched his personality in so many ways, and he had the support from François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of Kering, owner of Gucci, “who was really a mentor to me and gave me the chance to manage one of the most beautiful companies in the world,” he said. At Gucci, he was able to discover someone like Alessandro Michele as the creative director, “who was in the middle of nowhere” in the company after 12 years at Gucci.
Bizzarri said it would have been very difficult for him to find a different company to do the same job as a CEO after having managed Gucci and the other companies. That was why he decided to start a new venture as an investor, and set up Forel, a fund that invests in fashion, design and luxury.
He was asked why he chose a company like Franchi, where he has a 23 percent stake, and then Visionnaire, which is design and in an entirely different world.
“First of all, I became a private equity guy, but I’m not a private equity guy. I’ll always remain an operator. I think in the market today there’s a huge opportunity, like in any moment of a slowdown, especially if you look at the big brands, the big companies.”
He said that price increases of luxury brands in recent years have been 50 percent and above, and there is an opportunity in the market to target certain companies, especially in ready-to-wear, where people are less willing to accept the generalized price increases. He said consumers may be willing to spend a lot of money for handbags because they can pass them to their children or sell them as vintage.
He chose Franchi to invest in because he found “an amazing female entrepreneur,” who’s strong in Italy and Europe, and has big potential to expand in the U.S. and Asia, where she is not present. The designer opened her first shop in Miami on Oct. 30 and has a collaboration with Saks.
“We are entering the market right now, and I think it can be a good success, especially because the company is super solid financially,” said Bizzarri. He said the company has the right price point, a strong aesthetic, and, of course, geographical expansion opportunity.
Visionnaire is a furniture design company from Bologna, Italy, that is financially solid and led by a second generation of entrepreneurs, he said. He said the new generation wants something unique. He decided to invest with a friend of his, Jesse Lee, in Design Miami to support Visionnaire, in different opportunities. Another investment is Basic Space.
Discussing Forel, he said, “It’s a private equity company, but it’s not a private equity company.” The structure is made up of people like himself who have been working in companies all their lives. People who joined them are mostly from Gucci.
“We know each other for a long time. We say a few things and we know exactly what to do. And the beauty is, I left good memories in the companies that I managed, and attracting talent is not difficult. The advantage that you don’t usually find in private equity companies is that their firm is not run by former operators,” he said.
Also in this phase of his life, he’s happy to work with people he enjoys.
“Yes, the best gift that you can have at my age and after my career is to decide the people that you want to work with. That is amazing. I’m very happy that some of them follow me, and maybe others will follow me for the new ventures. And of course, we are trying to invest in these companies. So the fund is aiming to raise 500 million euros.”
Forel cannot invest in a single target more than 30 percent of the entire fund in order to guarantee diversification, so he’s limited to buying a minority stake in big companies.
Bizzarri was asked what his perception is of the industry now.
He said that the geopolitical situation isn’t something he can control. “There’s a war in the Middle East. What can I do? What I can do is manage the best what I can control,” he said. He said if you look at the last 10 years in fashion, especially in top positioning, they’ve been through two big phases. One was immediately driven by interaction with the streetwear launch between 2015 and 2020, and there was the beginning of the digital explosion.
“Logo was everywhere, and then COVID was like an interruption phase where companies were targeting mostly the 1 percent of the population.”
In the first phase, everyone was invited to the party like a special customer, where they were driving the growth. In the second phase, these people have been left aside because of increasing prices. “That is why there’s a huge opportunity right now to target these customers. The world of fashion today has clearly slowed down. But there’s more of a problem of offering than demand. I think there’s a flattening offering today.”
He said with all the talk today about data, when this data are used to define strategy, that’s a big mistake. When data is managed and understood by analysts, or people who have never worked in the company, they’re going to push one to take a strategy that’s not driven by creativity, but is driven by numbers. It means that everybody is doing exactly the same thing as another brand.
“So instead of unleashing creativity in the best way, you are going to make exactly the same thing that another brand is doing,” he said.
He believes there’s been a complacency in all the companies after COVID because there was a kind of revenge shopping from everyone. He said creative directors have been moving around, which is fine, but companies realize they need to push creativity again. The creative director is one piece of the puzzle and has to work very closely with the CEO. Doing a good fashion show is the first part. “Moving people around is great…changing is fine, which is part of the business, but the way that you change is even more important,” said Bizzarri.
He was asked whether the luxury industry is healthy.
“It is certainly good, especially for certain brands. It’s going to be like kind of a dichotomy. I think that brands will continue to work well because they’re well-managed. The most important thing to me is when you look at the last two periods, 2015 to 2020 and 2021 to today, the first phase is being characterized by fashion, and then quiet luxury. That is very boring.”
He said if you’re a fashion company, and you see that the world is going into quiet luxury, you try to become a quiet luxury brand because you want to mitigate your fashion effect. So you’re going against the values of the brand itself. And so you become something that’s totally not differentiated, instead of keeping the bar. The positioning of the brand is made by two things, by the value of the brand that is not mutable and the external scenario. The external scenario is why the aesthetic is changing and the value needs to be the same.
“If you want to become Hermès or Chanel all the time, by the way they’re playing in a different league, maybe not even the same industry.…If you are a fashion brand, you make the biggest mistake because quiet luxury is going to finish. Everyone is tired of it. So either the sexiness is going to come back, or the fashion is going to come back. Something’s going to come back, otherwise the business is going to continue to go down. The industry needs a spike, hopefully a big brand that’s more recognizable and more visible that needs to drive the entire industry,” he said.
On opportunities where he can invest he said, “Of course I can’t buy Louis Vuitton or Gucci,” but he can invest in brands that despite the market trends can gain market share if he does the right thing. If he does the right narrative, with the right aesthetic and puts the right people together and the famous culture that we’re talking about today, they can create an army of soldiers who are willing to go with you wherever you want, “that is going to make a change.”
He noted that brands owned by families are potentially more resilient than the ones managed by big conglomerates.
The brand he acquired, Elisabetta Franchi, has a strong connection to its customers. She was probably the first designer to embrace Instagram in Italy. He said she is creating a great conversation with the customers. She is mostly a wholesale brand.
Asked whether she will do trunk shows to build her customer base in the U.S., he said that is something she will employ in the U.S. and Asia because she’s not known as well in those regions as she is in Italy and Europe. There are many touch points she can use, digital assets, shops, wholesale, events, etc., because the market is totally new. “We can really create and fine-tune the Eliisabetta Franchi world.”
In conclusion, Bizzarri was asked what resilience means to him.
“Resilience to me is linked to optimism and curiosity because if you’re optimistic and you have a problem, then by definition you will continue to grow because you feel that something is going to happen — looking at the glass half-full,” he said.
