Pollini, the shoemaker owned by the Aeffe group, has signed two 5-year license agreements for umbrellas and neckwear, such as shawls, scarves and ties. Both deals start with this year’s Fall/Winter season. The umbrella license was signed with Drops and the neckwear agreement was reached with Larioseta. The two lines will be launched at the MIPEL trade show due to be held in Milan from Feb. 28 to March 3 and will be sold at Pollini’s boutiques and at selected stores in Italy and abroad.
Meanwhile Pollini’s parent company, Aeffe, released final results showing that net profits jumped by 62.2 percent to €12.9 million in 2007. Sales went up by 10.2 percent to €293.2 million. Operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 19.8 percent to €44.5 million, while profit before interest and tax (EBIT) increased by 27.6 percent to €33.7 million.
Excluding non-recurrent items, EBITDA rose by 28.5 percent to €42.3 million, with the bulk coming from the apparel business at €36.9 million. The shoe and leathergoods operations generated EBITDA of €5.4 million, up by 30.4 percent, on 13.8 percent higher revenues of €74.5 million.
Net debt went down sharply in the course of the year, declining to €38.5 million from €115.3 million. The order backlog for the 2008 Spring/Summer collections is up by 10 percent from last year.