The company currently owns 55 stores, 50 of which Benvenuti and 5 Enzo Bertini, most of them in shopping centers and malls. In 2020, the retailer opened two stores at the onset of the pandemic and opened three at the end of the year. There are no new stores scheduled for opening in 2021.
“Lots of people are now working from home, they are not buying footwear or apparel any more, because they no longer need to. Office buildings are 70% to 80% empty, and the trend will continue in 2021, even after the vaccination,” Adrian Cazu, development director of Benvenuti, told ZF Transilvania.
“Consumers will probably return to their spending habits of 2018-2019 slowly as late as 2022-2023.”
The company posted RON97.5 million (EUR20.2 million) sales in 2020, about 28% lower than in 2019, Benvenuti officials said. Online sales helped, as the decline of the physical store sales stood at 43%.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)