The strategic re-launch plan of the two shoe retailers, which together represent the main player in the shoe distribution sector in Italy, has begun. The plan was drawn up with the entry last July of RSCT Fund (Responsible & Sustainable Corporate Turnaround Fund), managed by IQEQ with the exclusive advisory services of Pillarstone, as controlling shareholder of PittaRosso SpA and former controlling shareholder of Scarpe&Scarpe SpA, and envisages the opening of new shops and the restyling of the most strategic ones, as well as the offer of an increasingly wide and synergic product range.
The new pole can count on a total turnover of 480 million euro and 15 million shoes sold per year. Thanks to the 300 sales outlets – with a total sales area of 340,000 square metres – every Italian can comfortably reach one of the group’s shops within a 30-minute radius of his or her home.
The territorial development of the two brands has already seen major investments: of note for Scarpe&Scarpe are the recent inaugurations of shops in Rome and Pontedera (PI), as well as the restyling of a number of shops in Sicily and Campania; for PittaRosso, the reopening of stores in Cosenza and Viterbo, new openings throughout Italy in OVS and Upim shops, and the opening in December 2024 of the shop in Cologno Monzese (MI), a shop that offers a new commercial format integrating all the chain’s latest innovations.
The synergic management of the two companies will also allow significant optimisations in purchasing, logistics, IT systems and shop network management, with the aim of achieving better efficiency and profitability, as Marcello Pace, CEO of both companies, emphasised: ‘Despite the independence of the two companies, this ambitious development plan will allow the group to achieve important objectives in terms of customer satisfaction, who will have easier access to a wider and more diversified offer, and at the same time activate important synergies contributing to greater value creation for all our stakeholders’.
‘PittaRosso and Scarpe&Scarpe are two brands characterised by a very similar distribution model,‘ Pace continued, “and they are an ideal platform for all customers” shopping needs: their presence in the main Italian Shopping Centres and Retail Parks makes it possible to intercept large shopping flows, while the Stand Alone shops on the main roads and in city centres meet the needs of proximity’. ‘This strong physical presence is combined, in an omnichannel logic, with online commerce garrisoned through two e-commerce sites that compete directly with the main players in the digital market,’ Pace concluded.
The aggregation of the two companies will in fact allow customers to find in PittaRosso and Scarpe&Scarpe a solid and reliable point of reference characterised by an unparalleled offer, ranging from private label products to the major international brands of the sports world: an assortment that will be strengthened and that will be able to satisfy even better all the needs of purchasing footwear at an affordable price, in addition to complementary merchandise such as clothing, accessories and luggage.
