Already designated as the future head of the Prada group, currently under the leadership of his parents, Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada, and CEO André Guerra, Lorenzo Bertelli has announced that he will also be taking charge of Versace. The former rally driver, who joined the family group in 2017, played a decisive role in the takeover of the House of Versace.
We already knew that Lorenzo Bertelli was the future of Prada. Now we know that he will also embody that of Versace.
Last August, Patrizio Bertelli, president of the Prada group, confirmed that his eldest son Lorenzo, 37, whom he had with Miuccia Prada, CEO and co-creative director of Prada with Raf Simons, would eventually take over the family business. He will replace the current CEO, Andrea Guerra.
And in a podcast published on November 19 by Bloomberg, Lorenzo Bertelli indicated that he would take over as executive chairman of Versace as soon as the acquisition was finalized.
Lorenzo Bertelli’s decisive action
The acquisition of the flamboyant Italian fashion house with the jellyfish logo by its compatriot Prada, with its bohemian bourgeois DNA, took place last April. This was in exchange for a check for €1.25 billion paid to the owner, the American group Capri Holdings.
However, Lorenzo Bertelli’s action and determination seem to have been decisive in this acquisition. In an interview with Reuters, he explained that he worked closely with Andrea Guerra to bring this project to fruition.
“You have to put this operation in the context of succession… Since I represent the future of the company, it’s normal that if I hadn’t wanted to do it, we wouldn’t have done it,” he said.
A multifaceted profile
Lorenzo Bertelli has more than one string to his bow.
After graduating with a degree in philosophy from the San Raffaele University in Milan in 2008, he began his career in 2010 as a rally driver. He joined the Prada group in 2017 as head of digital communications.
Two years later, he was appointed marketing director of the group, before also taking on the additional role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in 2020. In this role, he now oversees both the group’s marketing and communications strategy and its overall approach to sustainable development. He also sits on Prada’s board of directors and is a member of the appointments committee and the sustainable development committee.
High ambitions for Versace
Lorenzo Bertelli now expresses high ambitions for Versace. The brand is much bigger than the revenue it generates, and we like challenging missions. So our goal is to try to bring the business back to the level of the brand’s greatness,“ he explained. He added, ”We are neither in a hurry nor anxious… It will take time, but we are confident that we can bring Versace back to success.”
When asked about Prada’s potential interest in acquiring the Giorgio Armani group, Lorenzo Bertelli replied that Prada would look at “all opportunities” but that “the priority” was Versace and that there was “a lot of work” to be done.
In his will, Giorgio Armani expressed his wish for his empire to be taken over by a fashion giant.
But while he had expressed a preference for LVMH, L’Oréal, or Essilor-Luxottica, he had not mentioned his compatriot Prada, without ruling it out.
No rush
Lorenzo Bertelli further confirmed that he would take over as CEO of the Prada group “when the time is right.” “Things are working well as they are and there is no deadline for the current organizational model,” he said.
Finally, he explained that “there were no short-term plans” to list the group in Milan, an option that had been considered in the past.
Read also > Prada acquires Versace
Featured photo: © Prada Group
