Designer outlet mall operator posts robust growth

Florentia Village achieved robust growth in China last year, the operator of designer outlet malls said.

Maurizio Lupi, CEO of Florentia Village, said its seven villages in the country attracted over 25 million customers in 2023, a nearly 30 percent increase in footfalls.

As of end-February, the total membership of Florentia Village had exceeded 5 million.

Sales recorded in the villages increased by nearly 50 percent to more than 13 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) last year, Lupi said.

"Our performance has been very successful over the last few years despite the COVID-19 pandemic. We have had consistent growth all over the Florentia villages in China …This is an amazing journey that we have had in China since 2011."

A unit of Italian luxury real estate developer and fashion retailer RDM Group, the seven villages in China cover a total of over 500,000 square meters, with over 300 international and domestic brands providing consumers with discounts of up to 80 percent.

In China, its villages are present in Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Chengdu in Sichuan province, Foshan in Guangdong province, Ezhou in Hubei province, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Strong ties with brands played a pivotal role in achieving success in the fiercely competitive Chinese market, Lupi said, as many international brands with an aim to increase presence in China settled in Florentia Village.

In addition, "our capacity of serving Chinese consumers in ways they like, such as the architecture, shopping venues, entertainment, food and all the activities that we offer, are the reasons for them to come to us", Lupi said.

For example, eyeing the family consumer group, Florentia Village set up 2,000-square-meter family amusement centers in five cities, including Shanghai and Chongqing, and built them into comprehensive tourist destinations for shopping, leisure, entertainment and parent-child activities.

Lupi said the constantly growing market and rising local brands have given the villages more opportunities to continue investing and expanding in the Chinese market.

"The Chinese market is a super important, growing, and young and energetic market," Lupi said. "We will keep investing and enlarging our centers, because the requests from both international and Chinese brands are becoming stronger."

Lupi said that the company will expand the third phase of Shanghai's village since all stores there have been rented out. Meanwhile, in addition to the expansion plans in Chongqing and Wuhan, the Florentia Village Beijing-Tianjin will also be expanded soon.

The company said it will integrate more art elements into the villages.

Lupi said: "I think art is always attractive, especially for the younger generation. We are investing a lot in the arts because we think that fashion is an expression of art. And fashion, together with other expressions of art, is the right combination for our environment.

"We had a very satisfactory 2022 and an amazing 2023. And now we are looking to, hopefully, a super 2024."