Ports International Enterprises Ltd. has appointed Jenny Tan and Matteo De Rosa as chief executive officer and managing director of the group’s Ports 1961 label, respectively. The company’s goal is to further strengthen and expand its business worldwide.
The daughter of one of the company’s founders and a member of the group’s board, Tan has 20 years of experience in marketing and distribution strategies inside the firm. Effective from December, the appointment of a direct family member confirms the holding company’s commitment to enhance the potential of the label, said De Rosa. Both Tan and De Rosa succeed Salem Cibani, who was Ports 1961‘s general manager.
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With former experiences at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton‘s Acqua di Parma and in Ernst & Young’s consulting department, the 36-year-old De Rosa joined the company five years ago, immediately moving to China, where he started working in the group’s accessories department. He was charged to oversee the business development of the Ports 1961 brand, handling all the commercial strategies for the label.
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According to De Rosa, the company’s main goal is “to establish Ports 1961 as one of the international leading players,” strengthening marketing strategies and the distribution in order to take the work of designers Natasa Cagalj and Milan Vukmirovic — women’s wear and men’s wear creative directors, respectively — to the next level.
“We’re not setting goals in terms of sales volumes, but in terms of markets,” De Rosa said. The brand has four flagships — in Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai — and is available at 150 high-end retailers worldwide. Along with Italy, Asia is one of the top-performing areas for the brand, with Korea as the main market in terms of awareness. For this reason, five shops-in-shop will be opened in the country in the next three years.
In addition, aggressive distribution activities will roll out in Europe and the U.S. The brand is present in France through its Parisian flagship in Rue Saint Honoré and through partnerships with retailers such as L’Eclaireur and Le Bon Marché. The aim is to expand distribution.
The U.K. is another important target for De Rosa, who expects to boost the brand’s visibility, partially thanks to the upcoming women’s fashion show to be staged in London on Feb. 18. The women’s show has moved there temporarily from its normal location in Milan to “pay tribute to Natasa’s city and source of inspiration,” he said.
Wholesale distribution is the most fitting approach to cover the American market, according to De Rosa. “Considering how the market is evolving, I think that planning three or five-year-long projects or openings is not the best thing to do right now,” he noted, stressing how partnerships with multibrand stores are valuable to get direct feedback from customers and hear clients’ demands.
Product-wise, an expansion of women’s accessories is in the pipeline. This partially results from the success of its signature “Bow sneaker,” which is the best-selling product retailing at 430 euros, or $456.
Men’s wear, which represents 40 percent of total sales, also has signature projects, such as the No. 10, an array of 10 white shirts whose prices range from 200 to 400 euros, or $212 to $424.
De Rosa will be based both in Hong Kong and Milan. In addition to focusing on the label’s expansion from Milan, he’s been appointed to oversee operations for the group’s licenses from Hong Kong. In fact, Ports International Enterprises Ltd. is a major partner for European companies, including Giorgio Armani Group and Versace Group, for retail and online distribution in the Chinese market.