Ferragamo and Marco Gobbetti to part ways next month

Salvatore Ferragamo announced late on Monday that its CEO, the ex-Burberry chief Marco Gobbetti, is to step down from the helm of the company and the board by “mutual agreement”.

The company said the board met on Monday under the chairmanship of Leonardo Ferragamo and along with Gobbetti, agreed “to mutually terminate their employment and directorship relationships, effective as of the date of approval of the draft financial statements for the year 2024, March 6 2025”.

The chairman thanked Gobbetti for setting up and developing “a significant brand renewal and evolution activity, as well as significant product innovation and brand positioning, while also carrying out important work on the organisational evolution of the company and the group, which is the basis for continuing the renewal strategy”.

There’s no successor waiting in the wings and the Italian firm has begun “the process of selecting a candidate for the position of CEO who will be in charge of continuing the activities of brand renewal and heritage enhancement in order to strengthen brand evolution”.

Between the CEO’s departure date next month and the arrival of the new chief executive, whenever that is, the chairman will be granted executive powers. He “will propose a distribution of proxies and will be supported by a transition chairman advisory committee composed of experts with consolidated experience in the sector of business who have already worked in top management roles within the company”. 

That select group will include James Ferragamo, Ernesto Greco and Michele Norsa (who will take on the role of special chairman advisor).

Norsa was the longstanding CEO of the business earlier this century and left the role before returning after a few years as it navigated the problems caused by the pandemic. He left again just ahead of Gobbetti’s arrival.

Gobbetti joined in January 2022, after having led Burberry as successor to Christopher Bailey and initialising its ultra-luxury strategy.

Ferragamo’s sales grew in 2022 but a decline started in 2023 and its sales and profits continued to fall during 2024.