The importance of the Chinese market to the global luxury industry is self-evident. However, after years of rapid growth, understanding and adapting to a maturing and increasingly rational Chinese market has become a shared challenge for all brands.
In the Italian luxury brand Brunello Cucinelli‘s H1 2025 earnings call, the management did not portray China as a market that needs to be “waited on” for a restart. Instead, it was described as a market that has already entered a stage of “balanced, modern, and healthy” development.
Co-CEO Luca Lisandroni elaborated on this core perspective:
“We feel that people seem to be waiting for China to restart, seeing it as the engine of industry growth — and this wait seems to be dragging on. But if we look at the high-end segment of the market now, we’re seeing a balanced and very modern China every day. Its approach to luxury is very healthy. From our perspective, it remains a market destined to bring millions of new customers to the luxury sector year after year. But it may do so in a more gradual way, rather than with the excessive growth of the past.”
During the call, Brunello Cucinelli’s management emphasized that the brand’s solid performance in China does not rely on explosive market-wide growth, but on customer alignment with the brand’s core values.
Lisandroni stated:
“In China, we haven’t felt a lack of foot traffic at any point this year. In fact, traffic in our boutiques has seen very good growth, with many loyal customers — and, of course, new ones as well. So we haven’t observed any fundamental or substantial change in foot traffic.”
Executive Chairman and Creative Director Brunello Cucinelli added from a product perspective:
“What we’re talking about is unique clothing. Everyone is looking for truly original, beautiful garments. This is a fact. Uniqueness on a global scale.”
Lisandroni concluded that this pursuit of uniqueness will be a key driver of future growth in the Chinese market:
“This is especially true in China. We believe that the desire for uniqueness will be a major factor driving growth over the coming years.”
Based on its assessment of “balanced development” in China, Brunello Cucinelli has set out a clear long-term strategy: to remain patient, pursue high-quality, organic growth, and avoid speculative rapid expansion.
Lisandroni explained the brand’s future plans:
“China is already an important market today, accounting for about 13% of our revenues, and it will become even more important. But through an organic, gradual growth process, always driven by the pursuit of uniqueness and the highest artisanal quality in clothing.
So we plan to open one to two new stores per year over the next few years and, if possible, undertake one or two store expansions as opportunities arise.”
“We expect that our existing stores in China can continue to deliver healthy like-for-like growth. So we made a joint decision: even though there are more opportunities for our brand, we’ve decided not to accelerate. Not in distribution, and not in communication. This is true even though we’ve received so many appealing proposals to expand our retail network in prime locations.”
Under this “no acceleration” principle, the brand has shifted its communication focus to experiences that are deeper and more culturally resonant. The upcoming flagship Casa Cucinelli in Shanghai is highly anticipated.
Lisandroni emphasized the significance of this project:
“We believe China is young and highly connected, and everything can naturally move faster. We place great importance on Casa Cucinelli, set to open in the second half of next year in Shanghai. It’s a beautifully restored, very traditional Chinese residence, in a particularly charming location, surrounded by low-rise heritage houses and encircled by skyscrapers.”
“We believe the opening of Casa Cucinelli will be a very important tool for deepening the understanding of our brand.”
| Source: Brunello Cucinelli Earnings Call
| Image Credit: Official Brand Weibo
| Editor: LeZhi
