Slowear appoints Piero Braga as CEO

A new chapter is opening for Slowear. The high-end Venetian ready-to-wear group has a new general manager, Piero Braga, who was recruited from Gucci. Braga has spent his entire career in the luxury sector in various positions. He succeeds Marco Bernardini, the financial director who was promoted to the management team just one year ago.

The appointment came after the death of CEO Roberto Compagno in September 2021, son of Carlo Compagno, who in 1951 founded Incotex (Industrie Confezioni Tessile), a factory specialising in the production of trousers. Roberto Compagno launched the Slowear project in 2003 when Incotex acquired the highly specialised brands Zanone (jumpers and knitwear), Montedoro (jackets and urban mackintoshes) and Glanshirt (shirts), to offer timeless, high-quality menswear. Since then, the brand has expanded its offer to women and enriched its product range with new categories.

Roberto Compagno had notably opened up the company's capital in 2018 by selling a minority stake to Nuo Capital, a fund set up in Milan in 2016 by The World-Wide Investment Company Limited (Wwicl), the oldest family office in Hong Kong of the Pao and Cheng families, together with Tommaso Paoli, ex-manager of Intesa Sanpaolo bank. This investor seems to have taken control of Slowear with the appointment of a new managing director and a new board of directors made up of chairman Paolo Ferrin, Giorgio Delpiano and Stefano Sassi, formerly at Valentino, as well as new members Piero Braga and Monica Marsilli.

"The appointment of Piero Braga is the final act of a capital increase operation, guided by Nuo Capital and followed by all the other historical shareholders, which opens a new phase for the clothing company founded in Venice in 1951," said the company in a statement, without giving details of the fund's participation or the amount of this capital increase.

The arrival of Piero Braga, a top manager in the luxury goods industry, proves the desire of the shareholders to accelerate the development of the brand and its expansion, both in terms of directly managed stores and on the distribution front, offering Slowear's partners and customers "a clearer harmonization of the brands, and an enhancement of all the collection proposals in terms of quality and style, in line with the history of the company," it states.

The new CEO began his career in 1995 at Ermenegildo Zegna in the sales sector, moving on four years later to Tod's, still working in sales. In 2005, he joined Gucci as Wholesale Channel manager for Europe. In almost 18 years, he rose through the ranks to become CEO of the watch division, executive vice president of the indirect channels, outlets and travel retail division and EVP Strategic Advisor & Board Member.

Slowear has 30 direct stores, including two in Paris and six in Italy, where it generates 30% of its turnover. The brand is also distributed through some 400 multi-brand customers. After Italy, its main markets are Europe, which represents 30% of sales, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea and the United States. Its turnover is around 40 million euros, it grew by 20% in 2022 and should grow by 25% in 2023.

"I believe Slowear is a brand with one of the strongest reputations in the clothing industry. My goal is to give a significant boost to its development, bringing best practices to accelerate growth in all channels, while respecting the uniqueness of its corporate vision," Piero Braga said in the release.

Slowear appoints Piero Braga as CEO

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