News The vertical integration process of the Bulgari Group continues and strengthens thanks to the acquisitions of a 51% stake of the Swiss firm Prestige d’Or, leader in the production of steel and precious metals watch straps for high-end watches, and of 100% of the Tuscan individual firm Pacini, producing leather, reptile and custom-made fabric handbags.
Prestige d’Or, founded in 1993 and based in Saignelégier since 1999, boasts a long relationship with the Group, supplying watch straps for high-end Bulgari watch models like Bulgari-Bulgari, Ergon and the new line Assioma presented this year at Baselworld. Prestige d’Or currently has 64 employees and in 2004 registered a turnover of about 5 million euros.
Jean-Claude Probst, founder of Prestige d’Or and currently Production Manager of the company, holds the 49% of the shares of the conpany and will continue to head its manufacturing operations, reporting to the Watch Business Unit of the Bulgari Group.
Pacini’s firm, founded in 1969 by Mario Pacini, is based in Bagno a Ripoli (Florence) in the heart of the Tuscan leather working district. The company is specialised in a wide range of activities, from the realisation of paper patterns and prototypes to materials supply, cutting, stripping, assembling and mounting for leather, precious hides and custom-made fabric handbags. The firm - now named Bulgari Accessori SrL - currently has about 15 employees with the aim to increase the personnel to 50 units in the next months in order to meet the new and increased production needs.
Through these acquisitions the Bulgari Group testifies once again its commitment for an upstream vertical integration strategy aiming to optimise the production processes. This strategy was successfully started some time ago with the acquisition of 100% of Crova in two phases (December 2003 and December 2004) in the jewellery sector and of a 50% stake of Cadrans Design (April 2005) in the watchmaking sector.
The recent acquisition of Bulgari Accessori SrL will enable the Group to go on with the development of the accessories business especially in light of the outstanding sales performance posted by this segment (+35.0% in the first semester 2005). A fundamental step for this project, in fact, will be the opening of the first Bulgari store fully dedicated to accessories: the new 120 square metres store will open at the end of November in the department store Shinsaibashi Sogo of Osaka (Japan) and will be adjoining the 120 square metres jewellery and watches store opened by the brand in September this year.
October 25, 2005