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Gucci Chief to Offer a Design for Luxury in VolumeRobert Polet spent much of his career in business selling mass market products, most recently frozen peas and Popsicles. Now, after a high-fashion makeover, he is about to find out if he can interest the public in $1,000 handbags.
Next Tuesday, both the fashion industry, where skepticism about outsiders runs rampant, and corporate investors, with their focus on the bottom line, will be watching intently as Mr. Polet, the new chief executive of the Gucci Group, explains his strategy for the first time since joining the company in July.
He has an ambitious target to announce, executives with knowledge of the plans said. Mr. Polet wants to double the sales of Gucci's own brand-name merchandise in the next seven years.
That is just the kind of goal that used to excite investors when Mr. Polet ran Unilever's global ice cream and frozen foods division - with brands like Good Humor bars and Birds Eye vegetables.
But will the talents that worked so well at Unilever for Mr. Polet, 49, carry over into transforming a fractious, often money-losing group of luxury brands where talent has been streaming out the door into a profit-generating machine for Pinault-Printemps- Redoute, its parent company?
There has been speculation in the fashion industry that Gucci will try to expand its presence by signing more licensing deals an
more: www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/busine... (117)
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