LONDON — Asprey, the luxury jewelry, ready-to-wear and accessories brand, is getting a permanent home again in New York.
The company, which was sold earlier this year to Sciens Capital Management LLC and Plainfield Asset Management LLC, plans to open a new store on Madison Avenue, between 70th and 71st Streets, according to industry sources.
The 6,000-square-foot space is due to open in April, and will mark the start of a new phase for the company in the U.S. Asprey has been trading out of a temporary location at 50 East 57th Street, after shutting its loss-making 20,000-square-foot flagship in Trump Tower in March.
The company also plans to break even within the next 10 to 12 months, the sources said, and stage its first rtw show at its Bond Street flagship during London Fashion Week in February.
Although Asprey chairman Gianluca Brozzetti declined to comment on the new Manhattan store, the break-even target and the fashion show, he said the company was improving on a daily basis, and revenues for the year ended March 2006 were $45 million, up 2 percent from the previous year.
In a telephone interview, he added the company has just opened its 18th point of sale — at Takashimaya in Tokyo — and retail sales at Asprey’s stores in the first seven months of the current fiscal year had risen 8 percent.
Stripping out the decline from the closure of the New York store in Trump Tower, he said they would have risen 35 percent.
“We are on track with the new owners, who are financially disciplined, helpful and efficient,” said Brozzetti, who brokered the deal to sell the ailing Asprey and Garrard brands last year. As reported, Garrard was sold separately to The Yucaipa Cos. LLC for an undisclosed price.
The former owners of Asprey and Garrard — Lawrence Stroll, Silas Chou and Edgar Bronfman Jr. — overexpanded the brand’s product offering, incurred enormous costs and eventually gave up on the two brands last year in one of European luxury’s most dramatic episodes.
The Asprey sale was a management buyout, and Brozzetti said he remains “fully involved, with a direct investment” in the company. Sciens Capital Management and Plainfield Asset Management have committed to spending $80 million to $100 million to fund Asprey’s further expansion.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
Brozzetti said since the sale in March, management has made moves to reduce the cost structure, consolidating rents and offices, reducing head counts and rationalizing stock.
The next step, he said, is to continue to open stores, focus on the brand, product and growth and keep the business moving forward in its 225th anniversary year.
This Thursday, Asprey will throw a party at the Bond Street store to mark the anniversary, and Brozzetti has a number of other events planned. The company’s new creative director, Hakan Rosenius, who joined in the summer, will unveil The London Arms, a collection of luggage, silk ties, rtw and watches inspired by a set of canvas Asprey luggage from the Twenties.
The collection will bear Asprey’s newly minted, purple and gold coat of arms, which bears the company motto, “It can be done.” It was developed by The College of Arms, the official repository of the coats of arms and pedigrees of British families.
For one night, Brozzetti will also display a natural, vivid blue diamond, on loan from a private collector. The 22.93-carat, cushion-cut diamond, with an estimated value of $100 million, will be seen in public for the first time in 80 years. It once belonged to the Maharaja of Nawanagar, a regular client of Asprey’s.