Levi Strauss Hires Gianluca Flore as Commercial Chief
● The luxury veteran will oversee commercial operations at the Levi's brand when he starts in July.
Gianluca Flore is trading in his trenchcoat for some 501s.
Flore, who's been chief commercial officer of Burberry since 2021, is moving over to Levi Strauss & Co. to take on the same role, overseeing commercial operations of the Levi's brand across all global channels.
The appointment, which also sees Flore join Levi's executive leadership and become an executive vice president, is effective July 29.
He will report to Michelle Gass, who's been chief executive officer since January and has been accelerating the company's pivot to a direct-to-consumer positioning.
In a statement, Gass called Flore “an industry veteran with an exceptional track record of delivering profitable growth at iconic fashion brands. His depth of experience in driving market relevance and consumer-centric, operational excellence makes him the right leader to help us usher in the company's next chapter of stakeholder value creation.”
Before Burberry, where Flore started in 2017, he held a series of leadership roles at luxury giant Kering, working at Bottega Veneta and rising to become CEO of Brioni.
“It's an honor to join a storied company like LS&Co. at this exciting time for the Levi's brand, which continues to be the unequivocal category leader, firmly at the center of culture,” Flore said. “I look forward to working with the immensely talented LS&Co. team, in service to its consumers and to making Levi's the definitive denim lifestyle leader globally.” Flore arrives at a time of change for Levi's. Gass is looking to continue the work of her precessor, Chip Bergh, who transformed the brand from a sleepy denim wholesaler into a more modern lifestyle player.
It's the DTC side of the company — which includes its own stores and website — that is now driving the business.
Levi's adjusted first-quarter sales rose 7 percent in the DTC business, which accounted for 48 percent of the company's revenues. Meanwhile, adjusted wholesale sales were down 9 percent.
“We are undertaking an end-to-end rewiring of the entire enterprise in how we go to market,” Gass told WWD in a recent interview, referring to the productivity of Levi's DTC business.
“We want to continue to drive that revenue up, drive productivity, sales per square foot,” the CEO said. “Our DTC channel overall was up 10 percent [in the U.S.] and a big part of that was comp growth.”