Dubai: Rivoli Group expects to record a 10 per cent growth in profit and revenue in 2015 compared with 2014 as it looks to acquire a couple of more brands under license by Italian eyewear firm Marcolin, according to the retail company’s top executive.
“These are pretty much concluded,” Ramesh Prabhakar, CEO of the Dubai retail chain, told Gulf News in an interview on Monday. An announcement on the launch of the brands will be made in the second half of the year.
Rivoli, which has a portfolio of more than 110 international brands and sells watches, eyewear and leather accessories, already distributes Marcolin products by brands like Guess and Diesel. It will be distributing products by menswear designer Ermenegildo Zegna, another Marcolin brand, this quarter.
Prabhakar expects Marcolin products to contribute five to 10 per cent of its total revenue.
He anticipates the number of its eyewear units sold to grow by around 15 per cent this year over 2014 as the company aims to focus on product design and innovation, according to Prabhakar . The eyewear category currently represents five per cent of the company’s sales.
Watches is Rivoli’s biggest category, making up 85 per cent of its sales.
The company is not considering an initial public offering at present, Prabhakar said, adding that the company is “well capitalized” and has enough funds for growth.
Aside from expanding its brand portfolio, Rivoli also aims to open more outlets.
Rivoli, which has 16 stores in the UAE and more than 300 in the Gulf, aims to have an additional 10 to 15 branches across Dubai and Abu Dhabi by 2016.
The UAE is Rivoli’s biggest market, accounting for between 65 and 70 per cent of its revenue.
Beyond its domestic market, the company is looking to expand in Qatar with four additional stores by 2016, bringing the total to five, as well as India, which it has been eyeing in the last six years, and Iran.
This year, the company will focus on far “delivering far more closely what the consumer wants,” Prabhakar said.
“We had a great start from January to June [2014]. All our sections delivered,” he said.
Prabhakar noted that the UAE retail market slowed down in the last quarter of 2014.
“This market is so dependant on the Russian and Chinese and both of them are having troubles,” he said. Russia is expected to lose $140 billion this year due to economic sanctions and falling oil prices. China has been struggling to maintain economic growth with analysts suggesting the country could fail to maintain its 7.5 per cent growth forecast.
Tourism from Russia to the UAE has dropped since last year as the rouble weakens. The number of Russian passengers that passed through Dubai International Airport fell by 18.2 per cent year-on-year in November.
“If the market, because of the Russians and Chinese, shrunk by 10 to 20 per cent, I think we could counter that,” Prabhakar said.