Giorgio Armani’s general manager Livio Proli set to leave

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Mar 18, 2019

Change at the top for Giorgio Armani. While sales for the Italian luxury label are stagnating, its group general manager Livio Proli will step down at the end of March. Proli will remain a member of the group's board of directors and will continue as president of the Armani-owned Olimpia Milano basketball club.

Proli has worked at Armani for many years. He was appointed general manager of the Giorgio Armani group in September 2009, notably in charge of the operations and commercial side of the business. Previously, he was the general manager of Simint, Armani’s production company, bought by the group in 1996 and later rechristened GA Operations.

Proli is the latest in a string of Armani top managers to leave the group: in 2014, Andrea Camerana, Giorgio Armani’s nephew and once earmarked as the couturier's heir, left in 2014, while Giorgio Armani's right-hand man John Hooks left in 2011.

The eponymous founder and designer, now 84 and still at the head of the Armani empire, is above all keen to maintain the group's independence, and set up a foundation in his name in 2016. The goal, as Giorgio Armani explained at the end of 2017 in an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, was for the foundation to hold part of the shares of the holding company that controls the Armani group, in order to prevent the latter from being taken over or dismantled.

Since 2016, Giorgio Armani's sales have been slumping, and the label seems to struggle getting back on the growth track. Revenue for 2017 was €2.33 billion, down 7% compared to 2016, a year in which revenue had already decreased.

In 2018, the group streamlined its range and distribution, reorganising itself into three brand segments: luxury, with the main line, Giorgio Armani, the haute couture collection Armani Privé and the design and interiors line Armani/Casa; the second line, Emporio Armani, which now incorporates also the very classic Armani Collezioni line and Armani Jeans, the casual label targeting a younger clientèle, as well as the Armani Junior line; and finally the more commercial A/X Armani Exchange line, featuring a young, urban style.