MILAN (AP) — Luciano Benetton, co-founder of the clothing brand, announced that he will step down as president in an interview published Saturday in the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera. He also blamed current management for losses worth 100 million euros ($108.5 million) that he discovered last year.
Benetton, 89, returned to the clothing brand as president in 2018, after resigning in 2012. He held a CEO hired in 2020 and his new team responsible for the losses.
“In short, I trusted them and I made a mistake,” Benetton said. He added that he first discovered in September that losses were piling up.
The clothing brand based in the northern Veneto region, famous for both its colorful knitwear and eye-catching advertising campaigns, has struggled with competition from fashion brands, with unions estimating losses at the group since 2013 by value of 1,000 million euros. Benetton has gone through several creative and management relaunches in a bid to regain its footing.
Benetton’s term ends in June, when the board of the Benetton family’s holding company, Edizione SpA, is expected to elect new management.
Edizione, whose president is Luciano Benetton’s son Alessandro, has various holdings, including transport and infrastructure through Mundys, and food and beverage retail, including the Autogrill chain, through Dufy.
The family’s holding company sold its stake in Autostrade per I’Italia SpA after coming under intense political scrutiny following the August 2018 collapse of the Genoa Highway bridge it operated, which killed 43 people.
