MILAN — Guru, the $106 million Italian urban sportswear brand, wants to compete among the big boys.
Catapulted to success by T-shirts splattered with a huge daisy across the front or back, Guru has a bullish plan to become a medium-sized player among major firms such as Miss Sixty, Diesel and Replay.
Rather than suffering the aftershocks of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Guru began restocking its retailers with 40,000 T-shirts and sweatshirts per month in the summer of 2002. At the end of last month, Guru acquired a majority stake in premium Dutch denim label Blue Blood to boost its international presence. Guru’s plans include making inroads in the U.S. and Japan, and opening 30 freestanding stores by 2008 in Italy and Spain, when sales are expected to hit $237 million.
Guru also has a quirky new spring ad campaign featuring Pamela Anderson, photographed by David LaChapelle.
“Young people instantly related to the daisy, which they found very strong, a little childish and impactful,” said Matteo Cambi, president of Jam Session Group, which owns Guru. “It was Guru’s starting point, a vehicle through which we grew if you consider that over the past four years our annual production went from 10,000 garments to 200,000,” said Cambi. He founded Guru in 1999, after a two-year stint in New York studying English and marketing. He was only 22 at the time but already an insightful maverick.
“We were pioneers of an edgier sportswear [line] because unless you traveled and bought Abercrombie & Fitch or opted for Nike’s apparel, in Italy there was nothing of this sort,” Cambi said.
Guru sells to 3,000 doors in Europe alone, but in order to promote its total look, Cambi has ironed out a master plan to open freestanding stores, either directly operated or franchised. By 2008, Guru’s retail network is expected to generate $41.4 million when it plans to have 30 stores between Italy and Spain, the brand’s strongest markets.
In the first quarter of 2006, Guru will open stores in Antwerp, Belgium, as well as Italian cities such as Bologna, Milan, Catania, Palermo and Parma.
“We want the stores to be approximately 3,240 square feet,” said Patrick Nebiolo, who joined Jam Session Group as managing director in 2003 to help Cambi put his growth strategies into practice.
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He said Guru is in talks with potential partners to penetrate the U.S. in a fast and incisive manner, beginning in 2007.
“We’re an Italian company so we want to make an entrance in a different way,” said Nebiolo. “We want a local partner to secure a capillary presence in the next two years. Some of our competitors opened money-losing stores in New York and Los Angeles without building the market. That’s not our logic.”
As for U.S. cities, the focus is on New York, Los Angeles and Miami, and possibly Boston and Chicago. A similar plan will kick off in Japan next year.
The store concept is in the hands of an international team of architects, who were assigned to treat mainstream materials such as steel, wood and glass in an unlikely manner and pump up the color factor.
Since it began, Guru has churned out 4.5 million garments, and the initial collections of basics have expanded into fashion-driven total looks of about 800 pieces between women’s wear, men’s wear and accessories. A children’s line called Guru Gang made its debut in 2003. Though Cambi gives the final thumbs up, an international design team of six, coordinated by Simona Vecchi, Cambi’s mother, puts the collections together.
“In the beginning I was more involved, but my mom, who owned a knitwear manufacturer for decades with my dad, knows the market well and is able to gel brand identity with commercial clout,” said Cambi.
The clothes are manufactured primarily in China, Turkey, India and Tunisia, with a small amount of production in Italy.
“Aside from lower labor costs, it’s hard to find Italian manufacturers that can guarantee the fast turnaround we need,” said Cambi. “In our early stages, there were times when we needed to restock tens of thousands of T-shirts per month and couldn’t afford to lose our clients.”
Added Nebiolo, “We’ve built a strong backbone for the company because in order to avoid being a flash in the pan, you need to plan.”