The first rumours about Italian department store chain La Rinascente being bought by a foreign firm arrived at the beginning of May when a Thai company offered 250 million euros to buy the historic brand.
At the weekend it was revealed that Thailand's largest retailer, Central Group, announced plans to acquire La Rinascente.
A major shareholder of Central Pattana Pcl, Thailand's largest department store operator, Central Group has been looking to buy foreign assets to expand its presence in overseas markets and to strengthen the presence of made in Italy goods in the East.
Apparently the final price paid by the company is 205 million euros and the operation must still be approved by the Italian Antitrust Authority, so the Thai group will have to wait until July before finalising the operation and reveal its plans for the department store.
La Rinascente currently owns 13 department stores in Italy, among them also the flagship concept store in Milan's Piazza Duomo.
All the stores sell an excellent selection of goods including high-end, mono brands and popular fashion.
Brothers Ferdinando and Luigi Bocconi founded the first department store in Milan in 1865. After developing and expanding it, the store was renamed Aux Villes d'Italie and later on it changed its name again into Alle città d’Italia.
The Bocconi brothers started selling ready-to-wear clothing, but soon set up a mail-order catalogue that offered a variety of goods including textiles and home furnishings.
While the store expanded, wrong investments and the First World War prompted the heirs to sell the business to entrepreneur Senatore Borletti.
The latter re-launched the department store asking decadent poet Gabriele D'Annunzio to find for it a new name.
D'Annunzio suggested La Rinascente ("she who is born again") accompanied by the motto “L' Italia nova impressa in ogni foggia” (A new Italy in every style).
The name symbolised the rebirth of the store and of an entire country at the end of the war. Yet "La Rinascente" assumed a new meaning after a short circuit burnt down the main store based in Milan on Christmas 1918.
Borletti helped the firefighters extinguishing the flames, then with his face blackened by the fire and his suit slightly burnt by the flames, he sat down to have his Christmas dinner, commenting: “Tomorrow we start again.”
The name suggested by D’Annunzio came therefore to symbolise a business destined to a new rebirth like a phoenix from its own ashes.
The Central Retail Corporation (founded in 1947 by Tiang Chirativat) manages department stores, supermarkets, hotel and restaurant chains, and real estate.
Will this new management mark La Rinascente’s new rebirth? Time will tell, in the meantime, I would like to suggest the new investors to re-launch the department stores with an exhibition celebrating Marcello Dudovich.
From the mid-'20s the artist produced different posters for La Rinascente to advertise its Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer collections, sport ranges and home accessories.
The posters displayed Dudovich's graphic ability and were very successful since they usually managed to generate desire in the customers thanks to the seductive and stylish models they featured.
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Very interesting! I think this is a fascinating history. I may have to show this to my coworkers, I think they'd find it very interesting too. Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Bell - Bayview Village | March 05, 2013 at 10:53 PM