Luciano Benetton, 89 years old, is the founder of the clothing group. He left the company in 2012, «with the company in good healthwith a turnover of 2 billion and a profit, even if logic says that we can always do better. Only after strong insistence from my brother Gilberto did I decide to return in 2018» states the industrialist. Why the group had difficulty finding a high-level management team. But now he is abandoning the Treviso company again.
He explained what happened in an interview with Corriere della Sera. «I trusted and I was wrong. I was betrayed in the true sense of the word. A few months ago I realized that something was wrong. That the photograph of the group that the top management repeated to us in the boardrooms was not real” he stated, underlining that «now we need to look ahead, a plan for the future will be made in the next few months, we have wasted four years and this makes everything more difficult without having a magic wand. Unfortunately there will be sacrifices to be made. What I can say is that maximum effort will be made to rediscover the energy of the best times and give new life to this brand which represents so much for our family and which bears our name.”
«Luckily – explains the entrepreneur – we had decided to withdraw Benetton from the stock exchange some time ago. And therefore the entrepreneurial risks were and are all in the hands of the family. But once again for my story, for what the company means, for the employees, the families, the many who confidently enter the shops from Moldova to Paris from New Delhi to Los Angeles, before leaving the group I intend to explain with the transparency that characterizes me about what happened without shirking my responsibilities.”
«I left the company in 2012 with the company healthy, with a turnover of 2 billion and a profit, even if logic says that we can always do better. Only after strong insistence from my brother Gilberto I decided to return in 2018, shortly before his passing. Edizione was unable to find a quality management team. The company was losing a lot. As soon as I returned I tried to resolve the most obvious errors, towards the end of 2019 they suggested I apply for the role of CEO”.
My function at that moment, Luciano Benetton continues, «was that of tutor to bring the company to managerial autonomy. If I had been twenty years younger I would have committed myself personally. The choice falls on a candidate who comes from the mountains, I like him, I say to myself ‘big shoes with a fine brain’, he presents himself with an apparent desire to understand and take charge of the problems, including the management team to be integrated. It must be said that I was warned by a heartfelt phone call from an acquaintance not to continue with this person because he defined her as absolutely unsuitable for such a complex assignment.”
Covid, Benetton notes, has «logically altered activity and results. For this reason, the three-year plan for breaking even was moved to 2023 and the objective was found to be acceptable. In fact, in the various councils the numbers continue to give the picture of a possible draw. Only on September 23, 1923, some problems were mentioned, but in a subtle way. And everything seemed under control.”
While we receive these first signals from the council, given in an absolutely unconcerned way on their part, he further underlines, «I realize that the numbers don’t add up to me and that the problem goes well beyond what they declared in September. Among other things, I had been feeling discontent inside and outside the company for a long time due to the arrogant and incapable attitude of the new managers. Phrases such as “we decided and you must stick to it” which we are not used to hearing or using in the company, give the caliber of the new management team. Naturally, I firmly point this out to the ‘new ones’ and in a board meeting I express my great concern for an economic trend that absolutely doesn’t add up.”
In one of the councils of the following months, he adds, «the bomb explodes, that’s what it’s about. They suddenly present a dramatic budget hole, a shock that leaves us breathless: we will be around 100 million. However, everything that has emerged and is emerging since September ’23 is a disgrace.”
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