Brunello Cucinelli Spa

I would like to hand you over to Luca Lisandroni. Please go ahead, sir. Good evening, everyone. I'm Luca, and tonight I'll have the honor to report on the results of the first quarter 2023. Brunello and Riccardo are in Dallas at the moment. to attend the celebration to thank for the award, the Nimas Marcus Award. I've got Pietro, Dario and Moreno here with me at Solomeo. And Dario and Moreno will be involved in a succession that I will be covering at the end of the presentation. But I would like to devote the first part of the presentation to report on the few facts and figures for the first quarter, and then on the market performance. Then we'll be introducing the new fragrance project, and I'll be making reference to the new items that we just launched, how they are positioned on the market. And I'll be introducing you, our partner, in the fragrances business. And I will be describing the approach that we have followed so far, and that we would like to maintain also going forward. And then we will be updating you about the evolution of our eyewear project with Luxottica. And then we'll be concluding with some remarks by Riccardo, who will be connected from Dallas and who will be illustrating our production plans. But starting with our sales. NETO revenues, 275.3 million euros, up by 34.7 percent, substantial growth. And at constant exchange rates, a growth of 32.8 percent versus Q1 2022. We have grown in all geographies. America is 42.9, Europe 15.8, Asia 56, sorry. The revenues have grown both in the retail channel, 73.3% for the retail, and wholesale, 4.7%. And this is how Brunello commented on these results. The first quarter of this year ended with excellent results. There's no doubt that we are reaping the fruits of the positive period that our brand experiences today. for the style it represents, and perhaps also for the way we share ideas with all our counterparts. As regards our market segment of absolute luxury, we continue to have a very positive vision for the entire coming year. Every day we are working on new projects for high-quality, exclusive, handcrafted garments, and it pleases us to imagine that they express a refined and contemporary taste. The strongly positive response to our men's and women's autumn-winter 2023 collections and the flattering judgment expressed by our esteemed multi-brand outlets and by international media, coupled with the beautiful atmosphere of our boutiques and our plans for major investments in advertising and events in stores and case Cucinelli, lead us to envisage a significant growth in revenues of about 15% for the current year. So, considering the results I've just commented on, we believe that behind this growth there are structural elements and temporary elements. And I would like to mention three of them in particular. starting from the first, which is we got the impression that the first quarter of 2023 has been characterized by a dearth of scarcity, I would say, of goods on the market. By comparing Cucinelli with other peers, we got the impression that the 2023 spring-summer collections have not been delivered yet. on time, as was the case before the pandemic. This is why our short supply chain, which is very active and includes only Italian craftsmen, together with a raw material procurement policy, which has always focused on our needs, also during the difficult times of the pandemic, have accounted for a competitive edge in this first part of the year. The second element which I would like to mention is the Neiman Marcus Award. I know that it's not common to think of a direct correlation between awards and the impact on sales, but it is true that starting... Well, you know, first of all, that the award was announced to Brunello in November last, and in November already we witnessed an increase of our sales, both first in the U.S. and then in Europe and in the rest of the world, which was confirmed again in March when the event of the award took place. and what happened in the first part of this year was witnessed already in september 2021 when brunello was awarded the prestigious gq award and on that occasion again we realized that this increased the visibility due to these prestigious international awards turned out into a growth of our sales. And the third element which has had a substantial impact is the comparison of our sales between 23 and 22. During the latest conference call, I remember Brunello defined the very good performance of the first quarter of 2022, very good the second quarter of 2022, and excellent in the last part of 2022. So we faced already growing performance in 2022. So considering these temporary as well as the structural elements, we believe there is another very important dynamic That is to say, the change in taste towards more sobriety. We had already had the impression that this trend was materializing mid last year. And I remember we already mentioned this during one of our conference calls. But today, we have been impressed by two factors. First of all, the rapid pace of the change we are witnessing, and then its relevance in the various geographies where we operate. So much so that this trend has grown particularly strongly in the States, but also in the rest of the world. an increasing trend towards sobriety. Coming to structural elements, I think I can summarize the dynamic that we are witnessing, that is exclusivity. You know that exclusivity is a key element and a key value in our society. definition of luxury. And currently, we see a clear difference between absolute luxury and the rest of the market. And we have witnessed that all brands, even the top ones, are enjoying incredibly good performance. I'm not just referring to apparel. But I'm also referring to luxury watches or hotelerie. So this trend is actually cross-sectional, involving all these market segments. And then very briefly about geographies and channels. Well, first of all, as far as geographies are concerned, we are particularly happy with the contribution of the various geographies. If I had to pass a short judgment on the performance of the various geographies, I would say that the Americas did great, some very excellent performance, a very strong performance in Europe, and a very interesting trend in Asia. with the western part of the world first, we have the impression that in the U.S. the demand for absolute luxury has become structural. As far as we are concerned, this demand is well balanced in the United States and in the Americas in general, and it is growing also outside the larger metropolitan areas where we are presented through our wholesalers. And the award I've just mentioned provided momentum to our growth in the Americas. And this is borne out by our results starting in November and week after week in our Neiman Marcus stores. Coming to Europe, the first comment I would like to share with you because I believe that none of us could imagine such a high and strongly growing demand in Europe before the pandemic. We are particularly happy with the results that we have achieved in Europe in the first part of the year, which was characterized by two major relocations, one in Rome and one in Forte dei Mami, these two stores. where franchising stores have now become directly owned stores. Such projects were very, I mean, involving these two relocations, were very interesting projects. Because again, we focused on the intrinsic characteristics of the areas where we were relocating. For instance, in Rome, for the new store, we have used materials like marble and precious wood to pay homage to the city. And then Forte dei Marmi, where we use the typical materials of the area. These two relocations, though different, do share the same idea, namely that of being welcoming, that we hope is a characteristic that our clients will appreciate. About Asia, Asia is reporting very positive trend, also in terms of overall sales. And this growth is driven by three countries. China, Middle East, and Japan that have driven our retails in particular. I'm back from a 10-day trip in China, and I got the impression that the country is very lively, I mean, full of projects. And there is a prevailing idea that the future will be better than the past. We are achieving incredibly good results in China, record results in China. And by dialoguing with our team in Shanghai, in Beijing, or with with our multi-brand clients, I had the impression that the outlook for 2023 is considered to be very, very rosy. In China, our brand accounted for 23% of sales in 2022. We have 19 directly owned stores that will grow in importance going forward. And we believe that 2023 will be an incredible year, especially for the top-notch luxury brands. And by reading the speech by President Xi over the next five years, I found a statement which I share fully. the Chinese president referred to stability as a prerequisite for prosperity. And I believe this sentence summarizes what happened in our company and in our industry in particular over the past few months. Luxury is now part of the lives of millions of Chinese clients. And we believe that their desire and their search for refinement can only grow over time. And now, a few words about Hong Kong.

Over the last few years, we didn't talk much about Hong Kong. However, having spent some days in Hong Kong, I noticed that the energy there is even higher than I normally found in 2019. And most importantly, I realize they have a very thick, a very busy calendar of cultural activities that may well be a partially new and further reason for attracting tourists from throughout the Asian continent. Let me now talk about the Middle East and Dubai in particular. Now, this region is obviously going through a very lively time. And we believe this is due to two main factors. The first is the relocation there of lots of people coming from Russia with their business, with their economic activities. And the second factor is the image of Dubai as a charming place where tourists from all over the world are likely to find a level of service and hospitality and entertainment which is quite unparalleled worldwide. So we believe that this year will be a so-called extraordinary year for Dubai, but at the same time we feel that this positioning and this international image may still be there over the medium to long term and be very beneficial for the region. which is actually one of the youngest regions in the world. In Dubai, we just opened our second store just a few days ago at the Mall of the Emirates to go with the existing store we have at the Dubai Mall, which actually offers a good representation of the brand in Dubai, which I'm sure will become the most important luxury capitals of the world. It actually already is. a leading city. Then Japan. Japan is another country we haven't discussed much recently, maybe because the market is almost exclusively a domestic market and also because normally this market has very long cycles. However, Japan is a very charming country. It's maybe one of the countries where quality is most highly appreciated. As far as business culture is concerned, you realize that the market is actually working around hundreds of department stores that are yet very contemporary. They're very up-to-date and have a very loyal customer base. In Japan, we posted a very nice growth in the first quarter, so we're happy to say that based on our stores and corners in department stores, our growth is absolutely comparable with the growth we posted last year. Let me now come to individual sales channels. My first comment will be about wholesale. Wholesale is increasing by 4.7 percent. However, if we look at that single number. Please remember there's been a very important factor last year. Namely, we were asked to provide very early deliveries of everything we had ready for the Spring-Summer 23 collection. And so we did ship a lot of the early deliveries to our wholesale channel last year to confirm the fact that we are actually selling much bigger volumes today. Should we try and neutralize that early delivery season? Let me remind you that in the fourth quarter of 2022, we posted a wholesale growth of over 50%, 53% actually. So I would like to urge you to assess the growth we posted in the last two or three quarters. And if we smoothed that out, the growth would be 23% per quarter. And we feel this is a very clear and very reliable representation of the quality of the orders we've collected for this season and the very fluctuating judgments that clients expressed about our collections. Now, speaking of retail, of course, 63% growth in retail is definitely much higher than our expectations at the beginning of the year. And this is the reason why one month ago we decided to change the guidance and to upgrade it from 12% to 15%. On the other hand, we believe that all investments we've made in the last few years in terms of relocations, extensions, renovations, and we believe these are just as important as new openings. So all of those moves together provided us with a network of stores that are young and fresh and totally capable of capitalizing on a very positive momentum like the time we're living through now. On the other hand, the second half of the year will start from a much higher comparables, and so quite reasonably this will slow down our posted growth without, of course, altering the quality of our performance. Now physical versus digital. We're still going through a very beautiful moment in time because people do feel the need and the wish to go to physical stores. People feel the need to spend time together and this is shown by the great participation to all sorts of events we've been organizing over the last few months. So physical network is in great shape today. which doesn't mean we're less than devoted to the digital side of our business, which is still fundamental, absolutely paramount to promote the company image through its products too. And our e-commerce performance is positive today and in line with our expectations. So to give you a final wrap-up of our performance in view of the first quarter too, we can confirm fully a growth of revenues of 15% in 2023. We imagine retail is going to keep growing quicker than wholesale. So by the end of the year, there will be a slight shift in the channel mix as compared to 62% wholesale, 38% wholesale we had in the end of 2022. As far as geographies go, we suppose all regions are going to grow and be very healthy by the end of the year. And in particular, we expect most contribution to come from the U.S. and Asia. So our results, and I hope I wasn't too long and I was clear enough, our results are what I just reported. And I stop here as far as our data are concerned. And I'd like to give some minutes to discuss in our fragrance project, starting with the reason that has been pushing us for quite a few years now to fully analyze and investigate this market. So even before and more than the economic opportunity, and by the way, let me tell you straight away, we expect that economic results will become interesting in the next three years at least. But the main driver behind our fragrance project was the charm of these products. When we presented the project in Milano, Brunello said something that really struck me. He said that fragrance is like caressing someone that together with trust would give people all the colors of affection. And so for us, the launch of fragrances is like starting a new branch. And for a brand which is so involved and so engulfed in sensory feelings like we are, that means adding a new dimension to whatever we do. We've always imagined that it's impossible to describe your touch and your feeling by words. But at the same time, we think that our touch has great memory and our smell has even better sense of memory. so much so that it can actually capture indelible memories of places and phases and circumstances. So you know that we consider a brand to be a lifestyle brand, which is rooted in ready-to-wear. So the introduction of fragrance will hopefully help us further characterize our universe and consolidate the matching between our brand and single top quality level in everything we do in whatever product we engage in. So this is the reason why we started investigating fragrances. So we started searching for the right partner to actually accompany our approach to this product category. And we have been actually driven to our partner because of the a high reputation they enjoy on the market. And we actually found out that we have a lot of elements in common, starting with the fact that Euro Italia is a company which is 100% Italian. And so we were really struck by an interview that the founder and chairperson, Giovanni Sgeribaldi, and he said he considers the maid in Italy to be a full responsibility. So it is an Italian company, but it's very international in its commercial footprint, like we are, and with a medium-sized dimension like us. Also, Euritalia is a company that's a family company, and their work ethics and values are really, really similar to the values that inspire us. And so we started our collaboration just before pandemic. And it was unbelievable. It was incredible to see how Euro Italia eventually got to the same decisions we made to totally protect their company structure, to avoid harming anybody like we did. And they also chose to do it very naturally. Last but not least, it's a company that immediately grasped our position in and also the peculiarities behind our brand. And so we worked together to write down a long-term program and long-term project. Our company gave a very active contribution in all the phases in the development of this process. And this is what Brunello means when he says it's a contemporary licensing idea. So the first few meetings started as early as 2019. Our first priority, of course, was that of working on the fragrance itself. The idea was that of conveying that same concept of refined elegance, of sedate elegance, of allure and of sobriety and elegance. everything we stand for. So we also like the idea that both the masculine and the feminine fragrances would be connected to each other with a clear memory of our local communities and our local towns. So since the first two fragrances we're providing, we tried to work to find an element of continuity over time that might actually serve a bit like the famous cashmere round neck sweater. So both pregnancies were born in collaboration with the Firmage family, with our noses, Daphne Bousier and Olivier Cresp. I would like to warmly thank for their availability, for their patience. for the major skills they have shown of converting words into olfactory notes. So as soon as you'll be able to smell those fragrances, all I can tell you is I hope you'll like them, and I'm sure these are the outcome of the merger of heritage and modernity, because they're based on natural raw materials, top-quality raw materials, that are extracted and processed with state-of-the-art technology, which is designed to emphasize the contribution of each individual olfactory node and to make them all stable in the end. So you understand how important the multi-brand stores and their assessments are for us. And when we presented these fragrances in Milano, we seized the opportunity to invite some of the leading European perfumeries to the presentation. And I have to say that there were two objectives that came up over and over again when testing these fragrances, and they were modern and precious. So hopefully this comment is going to accompany our two first fragrances to the success they deserve. What about their positioning? The positioning of these two fragrances will be on the top part of the non-niche market. It's the same position we have for all other product categories. First of all, we're keeping the same price for both men and women, which is quite unusual in the market. And both fragrances are going to retail for €108 for the 100-milliliter bottle, which is a premium of 20-25% as against the most important luxury peers. As far as distribution is concerned, these fragrances are currently being sold in a kind of a pre-launch campaign in the boutiques of Milano and Salomeo only. We followed two brands. One will be completing the coverage of our own single brand stores. And after that, we will start distributing to the most important perfume shops globally. The scheduling is we are going to start distribution in Europe on May 20th. And in October, we'll distribute in North America. And starting in January 24th, we'll start distributing the fragrances in Asia, too. Let me now switch from fragrances to eyewear. We still have a very successful collaboration with Oliver Peeples, which is going to continue throughout this year, till the end of the year. And right now we're presenting the last models in this collection. And I have to say we're very grateful to Oliver Peeples because with this collaboration, which started from pre-launch and went on for about three years, So we have accumulated a very valuable experience because it allowed us as a company to get to know the opticians' channels and to position our first products of eyewear in the top layers of the market, in the upscale market. And we feel the taste that characterizes this product has been fully acknowledged and appreciated by our clients worldwide. In parallel with this, we are working on the first prescription glasses and sunglasses collection, branded Brunello Cucinelli, which will be available from 2024 onwards and will also have exclusive distribution. Last week, we spent a wonderful day in Agordo, and we dedicated the whole day to the product. And we were really excited. amazed by the level of care that we were given. And we were really very struck by the collaboration between our teams and the Luxottica teams. We have already imagined a product which will highlight the main collaboration possibilities coming from three factors, the capabilities of designers, the artisan skills, of the masters of this craft and, most importantly, the major possibilities provided by technological innovation applied to individual production phases.

Personally, I haven't been in Agordo for 70 years and I must say that I had the opportunity on that trip to appreciate that the great attention devoted to the top quality as Mr. Delbecchio has always done, has on the one hand increased the quality of the products, but has also contributed to extending creativity. By visiting the production plant, you immediately understand the culture prevailing there, the culture of quality, quality that can be found in every little tiny detail. quality in the way the tools, for instance, working tools are kept and also the attention devoted to people and the cleanness of the premises as well was striking. We didn't find anything in hundreds of square meters of surface area of this plant. And now I would like to hand you over to Ricardo, who will be commenting on some new projects. Ricardo, can you hear us? I can hear you, and I do hope you can hear me as clearly as I can hear you. Yes, we can hear you. As you know, I'm in Dallas, where tonight will be honored to be awarded the Neiman Award that was already delivered in Paris. As Luca already pointed out, this award contributed, is contributing, and will go on contributing to our results. I would like to thank wholeheartedly the Neiman Marcus Tiva that honored us with this award. Neiman is one of the Most traditional department stores in the States, they have been in the States for more than 100 years. And considering what they have managed to do with their stores, we believe the grounds have been laid to continue existing for the next 100 years. But coming to our project about the development of a new production plant, we are going to open a new factory in Penne this year that will become Operative Q423. As you might know, Penne is a special place. First of all, it is part and parcel of the Italian history of craftsmanship. of manufacturing, because Brioni is there, is an area rich in top-level handicraft skills. And this is the reason why we have decided to develop a plant, a new factory there. And we expect a sound and progressive development going forward. in the mid and long term further development of our menswear. You know that we have another production plant in Carrara, which is another district characterized by top quality handcraft. And we acquired the Sartoria d'Avenza in Carrara some years ago. And Brunello has reiterated our commitment to developing skills and competencies to develop and manufacture top-level and top-quality menswear. It is important for us to ensure the dignity and the economic dignity of craftsmen as well as the quality of the workplace. And I do hope that you'll be able to see that this factory mirrors these values. So my best greetings from Dallas, and I hand you back to Luca. Thank you very much, Riccardo. Just a final point to mention our succession plan. Fifteen years ago, Brunello considered the issue of the longevity of the company, and it developed the so-called agreement between generations, whereby a head of function, when turning 60, will have to hand over the responsibility of the function to a younger person. In the history of our company, we have already witnessed successions of this kind happening base of such values. And we are happy to say that the successions have granted business continuity at best. And from a, say, more human point of view, this succession has taken place in the most harmonious way. So in the next few days, Our CFO, Moreno, who is here with me tonight and who has been assisted by Dario over the past 12 years, will hand over the CFO function to Dario. Moreno will stay in the company and he will go on providing a valuable contribution to our company. He's an example of integrity and of integrity righteousness, and he will be acting as senior CFO. Just to give an idea what is going to happen, it's like being on an aircraft with two pilots. So far, Moreno was the main pilot and Dario was his assistant. From now on there will be exchanging roles so I would like to congratulate Dario on his new role and I would like to thank Moreno wholeheartedly also on behalf of our team for his contribution so far and for the valuable contribution I'm sure he will be continuing to provide to our company. Thank you very much Luca and good evening. Well, after this announcement by Luca, I believe I have to say a couple of words. I joined this company 30 years ago and I've been assisting Brunello in making this succession plan become a reality. Now we have rules that are well defined and today I can assure that such rules were well-devised, considering that for the first time I'm involved directly. So I will go on providing my contribution to the company as a senior CFO with great passion and devotion. And Dario, who is taking over, thanks to his merits, will be able to count on my love, passion, and passion for this company and on my experience. Well, believing that this succession will take place as naturally and as harmoniously as Luca has already mentioned. I would like to thank you all, analysts, journalists, because thanks to your comments and your questions, I've learned a lot. And I've had the opportunity to provide my contribution to Report on our facts and figures with all the transparency that has always characterized us and also comment on the dynamics that have driven our results, financial and economic results. So thank you very much and now we're ready to take your questions. This is the call operator. We can now start the Q&A session. If you wish to ask a question, press star followed by one on your keypad. To leave the waiting queue, press star followed by two. Please ask your questions using your headsets. If you wish to ask a question, you can press star followed by one now. A few seconds of silence will follow to enable the attendees to ask their questions. So the first question is by Flavio Cereda, by Jeffrey. Thank you very much. Good evening. I do hope you can hear me properly. We can hear you loud and clear. First and foremost, I would like to... congratulate Moreno on his job over the past two years. I do hope I'll have the opportunity to meet you again shortly. Well, yes, I do hope, too, I'll have the opportunity to meet you again. And then I've got a question to our friend in Dallas. Ricardo, if you're still there, about the PENE project, can you tell us about something more about PENE? Is the factory, I mean, was the factory already there? Why did you select Pene? Well, we selected Pene as the location because Pene is historically a district of craftsmanship together with the Naples and the Tuscany districts. The Pene district has... always been one of the areas where the best craftsmen in the field of menswear have always worked. So Penne has grown and craftsmen skills have been developed thanks to the presence of Brioni, as we already mentioned. So this is the reason why we have decided to select this location, because we know that the skills and the competencies are there, the know-how is there. There are excellent craftsmen there who know how to manufacture tailor-made men's suits. And you know that the men's suits for us are the best way to tell a story, a story about the materials we used, the design. I mean, tailor men's suits account for the outfit by Cucinelli. And considering that we expect strong growing demand for men's suits and for men's garments in general, we believe the decision of developing another factory in Penne is the right decision. Of course, we always think of the future of this company, and we believe that this was a necessary step because we believe, as I've said, in the growing demand for men's suits to reply to your question we're not going to acquire an existing company we're not going to acquire an existing factory we'll be developing a new one and this will enable us to become operative q4 this year and then we will be progressively developing the our production capacity to meet the demand for luxury menswear. I hope I've answered your question. You did. Thank you very much. And again, congratulate Brunello on this award. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next question by Melania Grippo at BNP Paribas.

Good afternoon. Could you please give me more information about your performance in China? I think it's very strong. Can we have more details about it? And can you also elaborate on e-commerce? You told us it's growing even more than originally expected. Can you give us some numbers about that and the major growth of retail too. Thank you. Thank you, Melania. Let me take your last question first, digital commerce. We sell six to seven percent of our revenues digitally and Besides that, we can just have estimates of the digital activity from our e-tailers that we serve and the digital component of the sales of our wholesale customers. We always estimated that the right balance between direct and indirect sales will be complied with for e-sales too. So overall, we estimate our digital sales to stand between 13% and 14%. China, as I told you, China is performing really well. It's going very well for continental China. It's going very well in mainland China and Hong Kong and Macau and Taiwan, too. In this geography, we've always looked for growth totally consistent with the brand position in other geographies. As you may have noticed from numbers and the impact of Asia in the first quarter, compared to the 24% that Asia represented in 2022, Asia now accounts for as much as 28% of our revenues. And quite frankly, this is a very, very positive number. Over the long term, we keep seeing in China a major opportunity for ready-to-wear to begin with, and secondly for a top position in brands, and even more so for those brands that successfully interpret the Chinese people's culture with open-mindedness and a real desire of understanding. We're not forcibly trying to speed up our growth in that region by doing things that we don't really feel, but we're very happy to see that through our offer and our proposals, we manage to accommodate the choices of many Chinese customers, and increasingly so. Thank you. Thanks a lot. The next question will be asked by Andrea Randone of Intermonte. Thank you. Good evening. And in particular, Moreno and Dario, too. I also have a question on Penne. Could you please comment on the investment there? I guess it's included in the guidance you gave us for the CAPEX of this year. But could you please elaborate on that and how many people will be involved in this project? And the second part of the question about PENE, more strategic, and I would like to understand whether this decision is also at least partly based with the your customers' desires to be somehow reassured on your direct involvement as a guarantee of top quality and filter control. Is that a factor, or is it just an industrial decision? I hope my question was clear. Yes, it was. Thank you. Let me try and take your second question first. Actually, we can exclude the fact that one of the reasons why we decided to invest in Penne is that the market explicitly requires greater control. I want to highlight the fact that our production chain has never been challenged in terms of its ability to provide top quality and top artisan quality, even though we all understand is production that relies on the entrepreneurship of about 400 smaller workshops. So, you know, for us, this entrepreneurial level, this artisan skills, the capability to rely on workshops that find the right production solutions with us and that actually contribute a large amount of creativity has always been very important for us. Now, we don't want to change that business model. And the reason why we decided to verticalize or to make a direct investment in this facility is that we want to be quick. Right now, we have a very high level of demand. But in particular, if we think of multi-year planning horizons, we want to be in a position to act quickly. and to have an impact on a geography that basically leverages around the experience of a single individual company. So for the future, we're not aiming to change our production model. And definitely making this kind of direct investment means investing resources, which we are going to deploy very, very quickly. So to answer your question, yes, our numbers do already include a part of that investment, which, as we said, is a multi-year plan. It's a long-term investment we're thinking of here. And like we did in Carrara, we want to really dig down in this very fertile ground and become rooted in this artisan soil. So we are thinking of a long-term investment. So as I said at the beginning, this is a very important but progressive investment we're planning. So we will start immediately, but we're willing to grow and we're willing to include and insert more and more people. So together with the greater and greater demand we'll get from the market, we'll be able to respond to that demand and we'll proactively produce all the products we'll need. So we're thinking of what is certainly going to be an important investment because, as you know, our way of working out beautiful factories means that we may spend a bit more to take care of all details, to have all the proper windows, to arrange suitable temperature, to take care of all those factors that make a factory a beautiful factory. to make something that could be just a workplace into a dignified, beautiful place of work where people spend a lot of their working day or their day in general. So it's got to be as welcoming as possible. And as far as the hat count is concerned, since we'll increase progressively, we cannot really speak of the number of employees immediately. We're looking at the long term again. Now, of course, all production facilities for shoulder pieces require a minimum amount of people to be effective and to keep the right quality. So we will begin immediately with the minimum amount of people we need to hire, but the purpose for the next 10 years or 20 years is that of creating a very important production facility and a very relevant one that will keep quality and we'll keep the same uncompromising quality even as it grows. So we'll accommodate growing demand without jeopardizing quality. We've always said to manufacture twice as many products, we'll need at least twice as many hands to manufacture them. So we'll still hold strong on that principle, and we cannot imagine an investment which is going to be scheduled for the next few years and is certainly going to be a pretty relevant one. Thank you very much, Ricardo, and good evening, everyone. The next question from the conference call will be asked in English by Chris Huang of UBS. Please.

Hello. Good evening. Thanks for taking my questions, and congratulations on the results. This is Chris from UBS. I have two questions, please. Firstly, on retail, you printed a very strong Q1, which is triple digit above the 2019 level. So just thinking for the rest of 2023, according to the trends that you are currently seeing across the world, do you think is it fair to assume that we should see a further sequential acceleration versus 2019? So that's my first question. And my second question is on trends by consumer nationality. So your Q1 had a very strong growth in the Americas and Asia. But can you maybe comment on growth by consumer nationalities such as the Americans and Chinese? Any quantitative comments would be very helpful. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Now, as to your first question, the first quarter, Q1 was definitely an excellent quarter. It was also helped by the comparison with 2022, actually. If we look at our estimates, which we consider to be absolutely robust, our 15% growth by the end of the year, please remember two numbers. So the first is that from April to December, we will sell about 800 million, which is actually more than what we sold throughout the whole 2021. So the objective is very important and we're aiming at very high goals. Secondly, if we look at the impact of individual quarters, 2022 had a pretty exceptional performance because between April and December, we have been gathering nearly 80% of our yearly revenues, which is quite unprecedented in our track record. And if we look at the longer term, we keep believing that the general approach and the objectives we set ourselves is that by 2024 and 2025, we expect to grow by 10%. So that's been our growth pace, and this is what we're aiming at. And as we've shown last year, we are here to serve our clients at best, be them end consumers or clients, a wholesale client. But our project is that of reaching 15% growth this year and a 10% growth next year. Now, as to the second question on the nationality of our clients, Now, our business is mainly a domestic business. So when you see the evolution of individual geographies, that is really, really similar to the performance by nationality of shopperies. And this still holds true for the first quarter of 2023.

Thank you very much. Just a little clarification, if I may. So the first question on retail, are you able to comment versus 2019 level, just so we get a cleaner comparison base to our numbers?

Thank you. Yes.

Compared to 2019, in the first quarter, growth should be 65%. If we look at to-go, if we do achieve plus 15% as per guidance, in the last nine months, we would actually grow a bit slower than at the beginning of the year. However, Chris, let me tell you, it's really hard to compare to 2019 because too many things have changed, last but not least, our size and the structure and the size of the luxury market in general. However, this is the formal data we can release.

Okay, thank you. Have a great evening.

Next question from Louise Singlehurst of Goldman Sachs, please.

Hi, good evening, everyone. Thank you very much for taking my questions. And again, many congratulations on the performance for Q1. What a great start to the year. I had two questions, if I may. Firstly, I wonder if you can help us understand the customer mix. Obviously, there's a very powerful cohort mix that's coming through in the business. We're trying to think about the number of new customers joining for the first time to the brand versus an existing loyal customer base. And secondly, I wondered if you could just talk to us about pricing. I think in the past you've talked about an 8% pricing increase that goes through for 2023. Is that globally, so it's the same across all the regions, and is the 8% correct for this year? Thank you.

Here I am. Thank you very much.

As for the customer mix you asked about, I believe that one of the distinctive features of Casa di Moda, of our brand, is that of being able to combine growing number of the existing customers, that means loyal customers, which means that we are able to meet their expectations and the growth of new customers. This is probably due to the fact that we're still a young company. that can still attract many new customers around the world. But we are particularly proud of being able of combining highly loyal customers and increasing number of new customers that contributed to the growth of our customer base year on year. Then the price increase of 8% that you mentioned is the priceless increase that we implemented in 2023. You know that we set our prices twice a year at the time when collections are released, but we do not change our prices during the season. Let's say that our offer to the top end of the market has actually implemented an even higher price increase than 8% that you mentioned. As for pricing structure by region, it is true. This price has been, I mean, the same price increase has been implemented in all geographies. So we have, let's say, geo-pricing that is 100 in Europe, 124 in the Americas, and 128 in Asia. This is what we define as a geo-pricing that mirrors the additional costs that are accounted for by transport costs or duties, custom duties, and so on and so forth. There are no further questions. All right, then. Thank you very much. We do thank you for your time and for attending our conference call. And have a nice evening. Thank you very much and goodbye.