Franco PENÈ
Chairman and CEO, Gibo Group
FRANCO PENÈ Born in Turin 16/02/1952
Graduated in Business Administration at the University of Turin
1974-1992
He has worked with companies in Fashion and Luxury Goods area (GFT,Orlane,Perlier,etc.) taking different responsabilities and arriving to the CEO position.
1992- Now
He has founded in partnership with the Japanese Group Onward Kashiyama the new Gibo company in Florence.
As Chairman and CEO of the company he has developed the business during all these years building an industrial network based on 8 factories in Italy for manufacturing and distributing Luxury products from garments to knitwear, shoes and bags arranging licensees agreement with someone of the most famous designers (Paul Smith,Michael Kors,Chloe, Marc Jacobs,Jhon Galliano,Jean Paul Gaultier,Roschas,Jil Sander,etc.).
2005-Now
He has arranged the acquisition of the english company Joseph Ltd. diversifying the Group activities to the retail operations.
2008-Now
Jil Sander was the last acquisition of Gibo and Onward Group in Europe that was introducing a new business model in the company.
From the licensees agreement to the ownership of the brand creating a vertical integration from manufacturing to retail operations.
The Group turnover was last year around 340 milons euro with more than 1300 employes.