Federico Marchetti Joins Giorgio Armani SpA Board
The chairman and ceo of the fashion e-tailer is the first nonfamily member on the board of the Italian luxury group.
MILAN — Giorgio Armani is further cementing the longtime collaboration between his namesake fashion company and Federico Marchetti, chairman and chief executive officer of the Yoox Net-aporter Group.
Marchetti is joining Giorgio Armani SpA as an independent, non-executive director of the board, effective immediately. He is the first nonfamily member to be part of the board.
Armani was one of the first designers in Italy to embrace online retailing, launching an Emporio Armani online flagship store with Yoox Group in 2007 in the U.S., followed in 2008 by the EU and Japan in 2009. In 2011, the designer revealed he would also launch an armani.com store with Yoox, offering collections from Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Armani Jr., Armani Jeans, EA7 and Emporio Armani.
In 2009, Armani also joined Yoox in sponsoring students at a new one-year master’s degree in e-fashion program at the Politecnico di Milano’s business school MIP. The scholarship covered tuition fees and included a work experience opportunity with the Emporio Armani online store project team, powered by Yoox.
The following year, an Emporio Armani online store was launched in China, becoming the first western fashion brand to open an official e-commerce site in the country, also powered by Yoox, and banking on the growing importance of the Chinese online market. In addition to Emporio collections for men and for women, the store carried the EA7 sports line, a selection of the Armani Jeans collections, accessories, watches, eyewear and jewelry.
The site was entirely adapted to the market in terms of language and customer care, size conversions, payment systems and currency. There also will be specifically branded bags and packaging.
Marchetti broke ground in Italy by founding Yoox in 2000 and publicly listing it in 2009, then the first initial public offering in Italy in 18 months.
Then, in a first in the luxury online arena, Marchetti spearheaded the merger of Yoox and Net- a-porter in 2015.
With active customers today totaling more than 4.3 million, the group comprises the multibrand in-season online stores Neta-porter and Mr Porter; the multibrand offseason Yoox and The Outnet, as well as the online flagships for designer brands ranging from Brunello Cucinelli to Valentino.
Compagnie Financière Richemont took control of YNAP in 2018, delisting it from the Milan Stock Exchange and valuing the company at about 6 billion euros.
As reported in April, the COVID-19 outbreak put the Yoox Net-a-porter Group’s search for a new ceo on pause.
In an internal letter sent to employees and obtained by WWD, Marchetti said he had put the search “on a back burner,” as he intends to helm the company “until we return to calm waters.” A month earlier, Marchetti had decided to stay on as chairman but to hand over the ceo role when a successor was found.