Autumn portends a phase of price increases and tensions for the fashion industry, now in the crosshairs ofEuropean antitrust precisely because of this unexpected increase in prices: as declared by the competent authorities of the European Commission, in fact, the investigations will aim to identify “violations of anti-cartel laws and the abuse of dominant market positions".
Gucci has already welcomed the anti-trust agents for an investigative visit and now it will be the turn of other great protagonists of the fashion scene, while the critical issues are starting to affect the large-scale distributors and high fashion retailers; it is important to underline that, according to the findings of the anti-trust, the brands most loyal to wholesale purchases have attempted to contain price increases, unlike other economic realities.
“The most virtuous suppliers have increased their prices by 10%, but many have gone up to 20% and even more”, he tells MFF Julius Felloni, president of Italy-Confcommercio fashion federation. “The CEO of an important group told me that these increases will be absorbed by the market, but that will not be the case: wholesale thinks on a budget, not in quantity, and with the same budget, it was forced to reduce the volumes purchased. Several shopkeepers have changed the brands purchased to maintain quantities, thus avoiding unloading the increases on the consumer”.
“The factors that caused the increases are known, but the percentage appears excessive because personnel costs, which are the determining factor in fashion, have certainly not increased“, he declares instead Marco Cassina, provincial president of Italian fashion federation in Como. “We had to reduce our mark-up because the store puts its face on it, there is no set price but a suggested price and in this way, by partially absorbing the increase, we will maintain a relationship of trust with customers. I am convinced that online, with its discounts, will help contain prices in the current flame”.
