From manager to entrepreneur, Marco Bizzarri bets on Elisabetta Franchi (and not only)

Marco Bizzarri is a manager who has achieved a lot of satisfaction, bringing Gucci’s turnover from 3 to 9.6 billion. Born in Reggio Emilia, born in 1962, with a 38-year career behind him of which 20 in fashion, he is not someone who needs to work, but like someone who has breathed adrenaline from the front row, he doesn’t feel the need to retire on the island of Tonga.
Elisabetta Franchi is an entrepreneur very different from those in the world of luxury. She is Emilian like Bizzarri, self-made like him and very determined to continue growing. Bolognese, 56 years old, Franchi is someone who never stops dreaming, who at thirty years old alone and starting from scratch founded the brand that bears her name. They met with Bizzarri in Gabicce Monte, at the Dalla Gioconda restaurant managed by the manager’s son, Stefano, and “they liked each other immediately”.
Becoming an entrepreneur, for Bizzarri, is a new challenge: starting again with another role, as an owner, not just as a manager, and with another more inclusive positioning, that of accessible luxury after years spent making it inaccessible, to the sound of price increases , Bottega bags and Gucci sneakers. For Bizzarri, investing in Elisabetta Franchi is an opportunity, with the difficulty of repeating the success achieved with Mandarina Duck (2004), Stella McCartney (2007), Bottega Veneta (2009) and finally Gucci (December 2014). Yet it is precisely the mid-range segment, which is very crowded, that Bizzarri sees great potential in, so much so that he has invested his own money in the Franchi brand. Those who have worked with him say that Bizzarri has become a great manager because he has a pulse and is very quick at making calculations but also at sensing where there is an opportunity not to be missed. And he is very good at teaming up with the people in his team, but also with customers and suppliers.
The manager with his holding Nessifashion is ready to increase up to 23 percent of Elisabetta Franchi’s capital which he declared will be the first of a series of other investments in fashion companies but also in other sectors. Franchi had already opened the doors of her company to private equity in the past, but it hadn’t gone well. She wasn’t looking for capital, rather a strategy to grow abroad. Then, in 2020, the pandemic crippled its aspirations and wrecked the stock market listing project: it was forced by events to take action to cut costs and rethink the strategy, which in any case works given that 2023 is closed with 170 million in revenues and an operating profit of 54 million. Which is a very respectable margin equal to 31.8 percent of sales.
And then Bizzarri arrived, Elisabetta Franchi defined him as the Prince Charming, the white knight, the general who has already conquered the luxury star system and who is ready to start again with a new battle to bring the brand out of Italy and into world. And so Bizzarri, former president and CEO of Gucci since 2015, will take on the role of president and shareholder of the brand on April 15th. “The company that Elisabetta has created represents an asset with great potential for expansion both in Europe and internationally – he declared – I am proud to join her and her team to support them in this next phase of growth”.