From The Power of Strategy, Design and Brand Transformation · · University of California Television (UCTV)
“We have a business that last year produced slightly over 600 million dollars in revenues but if you try to translate all those dollars into what the consumer is paying at the point-of-sale that number is about a 1.2 billion dollars because we have a very sizable licensing business and the only thing that we recognize as revenues is the royalties that our licensees pay us for the sales that they generate.”
On , Carlos Alberini, Chief Executive Officer & Director at GUESS INC, spoke about revenue during The Power of Strategy, Design and Brand Transformation on University of California Television (UCTV).
Carlos Alberini, CEO of Guess and former Chairman and CEO of Lucky Brand, has spoken about his career and business strategies in past appearances. In a 2017 lecture, he discussed immigrating from Argentina to the United States about 32 years ago and expressed gratitude to the country. He described Lucky Brand's business model, noting that while the company generated roughly $600 million in revenue, consumer spending on its products totaled about $1.2 billion due to a sizable licensing business. Alberini highlighted that e-commerce represented 11% of total business but had a 28% penetration rate relative to full-price retail sales. He cited the idea that "the species that is the most adaptable to change is the one that survives" as applicable to retail, and described Amazon as a "powerful mover" and "big disrupter" contributing to customer traffic declines in malls. In a 2016 conference, Alberini stated that brand transformation and strategy can create "tremendous value" for companies. He said Lucky Brand's "why" is "Look good, feel good, do good," and outlined a vision to become a billion-dollar company in five years by expanding beyond denim into a premium lifestyle brand. Alberini noted that the company's customer base had significant disposable income, with 57% earning over $80,000 and 79% aged 35 or older. He described the business as balanced across wholesale, full-price stores, outlet, and e-commerce, and said the company was shifting marketing spend toward digital and grassroots efforts. Alberini also mentioned replacing Lucky Brand's infrastructure, including distribution and ERP systems, in about 18 months, operating most systems in the cloud.