Selling luxury during a downturn

    Italian handbag-maker Antichi Pellettieri is making a play for U.S. consumers, but can it succeed at a time like this?

    By Sarah Kabourek

    Entering a new market can be challenging in the best of times, but in the current recession, a willing march into, say, the U.S. luxury-goods market might seem downright foolish.

    Don't tell that to John Wilson, CEO of AP Bags, the newly formed U.S. subsidiary of Italian bag-maker Antichi Pellettieri. The Italian company, best known for its "accessible" luxury brands like Francesco Biasia handbags and Missoni shoes, received a $166.9 million injection of capital from London-based private equity firm 3i last June to make a big push into the U.S. market, where it had never built up a big presence.

    The company hired Wilson -- a former Ferragamo vice president for wholesale and duty free North America -- to head the charge, and AP Bags USA officially started shipping to U.S. retailers in February. Its bags, priced from $300 to $800, can now be found at stores like Fred Segal and Intermix. Fortune recently sat down with Wilson to discuss the luxury market and why AP Bags' timing may be both a blessing and a curse.

    So you've entered the U.S. during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. How has the reception been for APB USA?

    The most difficult thing about the move is a blessing and curse; it's the timing. The retailers are very conservative right now. They are reluctant to venture into new lines; they want to go with what's tried and true. But we believe very strongly that whether it's this quarter or next, they're going to turn around and go, 'there's no differentiation out there,' and we provide that, so I think that's a timing thing. But I think that also makes it more difficult today. Three months from now, it becomes a positive, but today it's a challenge.

    What's the blessing part?

    In the handbags and shoe markets right now, retailers are looking for price points at or under $500. The retailers are being very clear. They don't need another new brand at the higher-end designer price. Retailers who wouldn't look at lower price points 18 months ago are now looking more towards accessible luxury. If I called them a year ago, they wouldn't have taken my phone call, and now it's exactly what they're looking for. We feel like we're in that $300 - $500 sweet spot, especially for the retailers that we're targeting. It's their new opening price point.

    What are you doing that's different for the American consumer?

    My team and I are very involved with our Italian counterparts in being sure that the product that is being brought to the United States is appropriate for this market. We have expertise in this market; we've all lived here; we've lived it, breathed it for many years. I think one of the biggest mistakes that brands sometimes make when they come to a new market, whether it's in the U.S. or anywhere, is they really don't understand the difference in that market compared to their home market, whether it's something as silly as the length of shoulder strap or the ornamentation or whatever it might be, it's very important that they do that. And our Italian partners are very open to the feedback from my team. My team works with each brand, going through the upcoming products to be sure that we have all the right silhouettes, all the right colors.

    What about making the pricing right, especially during the recession?

    We've done a matrix and we've done a study, and asked on a brand-by-brand basis, where do we need our price points to be? And then we literally go to our Italian partners and say to them, this is where we would like to see this product, and we try to work with them to help us getting the appropriate retail price. It's almost working from the retail points backwards, and establishing a price point that we want to be at, that this recession consumer is looking for.

    So you're working backwards?

    That's the approach we're trying to take. The brands are very open and they know we have to do it the right way, so it's a very collaborative effort to get the pricing and the silhouette and the color and everything about it. It's all connected. If it's the wrong price, I don't care what the silhouette is; if it's the wrong silhouette, it doesn't matter what the price is. It has to have all the pieces in place for it to be successful.

    What is your best advice for companies trying to go from Europe to the U.S. or the U.S. to Europe?

    When coming from Europe to the U.S. what I would tell you is develop an infrastructure here that really understands this market, hire people that you trust to give you the appropriate information, and actually listen to them. Don't be provincial in thinking that you know everything -- that just because it works in Europe it's automatically going to work in the U.S. That's not necessarily the case. When I talk to my counterparts, they will tell you that Germany buys product very differently than Italy and Italy buys differently from Great Britain, because they have different climates and things like that, and then they think of the U.S. as just one homogenous market, and it's not. The country is basically the size of western Europe, geographically, so you have the cold winters and the desert, and people below the Mason Dixon line that aren't going to buy things that are heavier with fabrications and things like that. So really it's about understanding what a broad variety of consumers you'll find here in the U.S.