Luciano Donatelli. Fashion Consultant and Former Group Manager, Ermenegildo Zegna Group, has quickly put together a group of investors under the Club Deal 8 moniker, including online retailer Giglio Group, the Biella-based Gruppo Verzoletto for buying Brooks Brothers.
Over the years, Donatelli has initiated prestigious licenses with brands such as Gucci and Valentino. He was the president of industry associations Confindustria Biella and vice president of Confindustria Piemonte. His experience in the Biella textile region can serve him well as Brooks Brothers has for years sourced fabrics from that area, as well as from Italy’s Veneto, Tuscany and Apulia regions. His goal in taking control of Brooks Brothers is to reach sales of $3 billion in five years and grow production by six-fold. Donatelli sees sales of about $1.2 billion to be derived from the Americas; $1.2 billion from the Far East and $600,000 from Europe and Russia.
He aims to keep the brand’s American spirit, but also produce more ‘glocal’ collections, adapting the label to different regional areas, highlighting a couture division in the US to be produced in the Boston and North Carolina plants.
