Salvatore Ferragamo appoints Alessandro Corsi as new CFO

By

Gianluca Bolelli

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Dec 14, 2018

Salvatore Ferragamo has gone for an internal solution to replace its departing CFO. During the board of directors’ meeting of December 13, the Florentine luxury group appointed Alessandro Corsi as its new CFO from January 11 2019.

Corsi will be taking over from Ugo Giorcelli, who joined Ferragamo in March 2017 after 10 years with Amplifon, called up by former CEO Eraldo Poletto. On Dec. 12, Ferragamo issued a statement saying that Giorcelli is leaving the group “to embark on a new professional development path.”

Giorcelli’s exit was not well received by financial markets, an effect compounded by the Italian group’s downgrading by independent financial services firm Kepler Chevreux, and the luxury sector’s conservative growth forecast, due to China’s expected slowdown in 2019.

After an initial stint with General Electric’s finance department, Corsi joined Salvatore Ferragamo in 2003, working on financial planning and control, and was later appointed Director of Group Business Development and E-commerce. Corsi, who isn’t a Ferragamo shareholder, then worked on the group’s IPO and, after Ferragamo was listed on the stock exchange, took on the role of Investor Relations director until 2013, when he was put in charge of the group’s EMEA business, a position he held until 2018, when he was appointed chief strategy officer.
 
At the same board meeting of Dec. 13, Ferragamo also put Marco Fortini in charge of the group’s corporate financial reports from January 11 2019, a role he already held in 2016 and 2017.
 
The Salvatore Ferragamo group has approximately 4,000 employees and operates 679 monobrand stores worldwide, chiefly on the European, American and Asian markets. In the first nine months of the current financial year, the group recorded a revenue of €972 million, down 3.3% compared to the same period in 2017, despite a rally in the third quarter, which closed with a revenue of €298 million, up 3.9%. EBITDA fell by 7.9% to €149 million, while net income decreased by 17.5%, to €65 million. In the period in question, sales for handbags and leather accessories were up 1.9%, fragrance was up 2.6%, while apparel and footwear lost respectively 11.6% and 6.2%.