Brunello Cucinelli Spa Stock

Good evening, and welcome to the presentation of the 9 months results 2026 of the fashion house, Brunello Cucinelli. Speakers will be Brunello Cucinelli, who is the Executive Chairman and Creative Director; Luca Lisandroni, CEO; Riccardo Stefanelli, CEO; Dario Pipitone, CFO; Moreno Ciarapica, Co-CFO, Senior; and Pietro Arnaboldi, Investor Relations and Corporate Planning Director. [Operator Instructions]

Now I'd like to give the floor to Brunello Cucinelli.

[Interpreted] Good evening, and it is really a pleasure to see you. We have installed new microphones. And hopefully, that is working -- it is working properly. So thank you very much, analysts, investors, journalists. There's always all 10 of us here around by table to provide you with the results of the first 9 months of the year. But being mid-October already, we -- basically, this call basically provides you with the results of the end of the year.

So this is how the call will run. I will read out the headline figures, then Luca and Riccardo will give you a worldwide overview of the market. Also with updates on Callimacus that we received the green light from the government, and that we have started this great project together with Marc Benioff. Then I will take the flow back with expectations for 2026. Then we will also provide you with quite good visibility on 2027. And then I will tell you about the conclusions we drew after the 2 days we spent together in early October, when we basically gathered and tried to understand who we are, in which market we are present and how we operate and what the great fundamentals of our fashion house are.

Now let me read. The first 9 months of the year closed with very, very positive results, which allow us to raise up again our estimates for 2026, moving from an expected plus [ 10%-11% ] to a forecast revenue growth of plus 12% at constant exchange rates. So revenues of EUR 1.123 billion, up by 13.3% at constant exchange rates and 10.2% at current exchange rates. Third quarter revenues, very important, EUR 374.2 million, up by 13.5% at constant exchange rates.

The retail channel revenues of EUR 741 million report an increase of plus 19% at constant exchange rates in the first 9 months of the year. Then significant growth was reported in every quarter of the year, 17% at constant exchange rates in the third quarter, with double-digit increases across all geographies. The wholesale channel with sales of EUR 382.6 million confirms a consistently very sound result, plus 4% at constant exchange rates as of 30 September 2026, plus 7% at constant exchange rates in the third quarter.

Very positive performance across all geographies, sales at constant exchange rates of plus 20% in the Americas, plus 7% in Europe and plus 14% in Asia, with a significant contribution coming from China. Sales of the fall/winter 2020 Men's and Women's collections currently in stores are very positive. Then spring/summer 2027 collections. [ Comes in ] Women's order-taking campaigns are complete, both with very extremely positive results.

We gathered particularly favorable comments from our sales teams from our multi-brand clients as well as from the international press at [ PT Wamo ], the trade fair, last June, as well as the recent Milan Fashion Week for women last September. Our positioning in the absolute luxury segment and the pleasant atmosphere that we continue to feel around our brands allow us to look with confidence to 2027 as well, a year in which we expect healthy balanced revenue growth of around 10%.

Next week, in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong, the important premieres of the documentary film Brunello, The Gracious Visionary will take place following the great appreciation it received in Rome first, and then New York and Paris. During the Shanghai event, we will also open our Casa Cucinelli there in a captivating historic residence from the late 19th century in the city. It is really a splendid city.

So next week, we will be traveling across eastern -- the eastern part of the world. At the beginning of November, in Solomeo, we'll host the second addition of La Paulee, a prestigious biannual gathering that brings together some of the most important wine and champagne producers and collectors in the world. It is a relevant event for us and also for Solomeo, which will give us the opportunity to welcome guests of international standing and to share with them the atmosphere and values that animates our village. If you have 2 spare days, please do join us.

Now let me read out what I wrote. The first 9 months of 2026 ended with revenues growth of 13.3% at constant exchange rates, and we consider this result to be very pleasing. We believe that the brand's image around the world reflects what we have always aspired: a belief in absolute luxury. With no logo absolute luxury, we think of a brand that stands for authenticity, style, familiarity and simplicity, where the product is the fruit of exceptional craftsmanship, quality, creativity with a contemporary sensibility and a strong sense of exclusivity, the latter being of paramount importance to us.

We also feel that ours is not a mass market notoriety or renown. The family's stewardship of the brand allows us to take a longer-term view, with the enduring hope of maintaining a sound and well-earned reputation and ensuring that the [ run ] continues to thrive for decades to come. In light of these considerations, and as the year draws to a close, we expect healthy revenue growth of around 12% in 2026 with -- at constant exchange rates, together with a sound level of profitability. Following the excellent performance of our spring/summer '27 menswear and womenswear collection and the highly favorable reviews from the press during the Milan Fashion Week last September, we visage healthy growth of around 10% for 2027 as well.

And now it will be up to Luca and Riccardo to give us a worldwide overview.

[Interpreted] Well, very well. Ric, let me start. I have to say that we have closed the first 9 months of the year very well indeed, as we have these first 15 days of October. You see the results achieved and the information and feelings that we have regard the last quarter of the year have led us to a second review of our revision of our estimate, always guided by the desire to share our expectation with you promptly and punctually.

The growth has been distinctly regular, steady and continuous as the figures themselves demonstrate. In Q3 too, we are actually growing by 13.5% at constant exchange rates, perfectly in line with the results of the first 6 months. And even when we actually look at absolute values and no longer percentage ones, we can actually realize that the contribution to growth of each quarter at constant exchange rates has been entirely comparable. Therefore, we attach very great relevance to this growth.

We attach a still greater value to two of its features that make this growth even sounder and more robust. On the one hand, we have its linearity over time. And then on the other hand, we have its spread across geographies and sales channels.

This increase, the raising of the estimate about 2 points compared with the start of the year, rests on two reasons. On the one hand, the actual advantage achieved in the first 9 months of the year, and then the great confidence with which we look to the last quarter. As to the 9 months, we have delivered 3 quarters [ or ] slightly above our expectations, thanks to [ 4 tagonists ], we may say. Retail, our online boutique, then geographically speaking, North America and China, and then, obviously, the strength of our collections. The advantage gained is ascribable to the retail channel in a balanced way between the organic component and the contribution of the new stores and new spaces.

In the stores, both the number of customers and the average spend of existing ones are growing, thus reinforcing our conviction that we have a network that is still very young, which has ahead of it, both ample room for healthy organic growth and also further scope for expansion. So very good results for the physical stores and excellent results for digital boutique. As you know, our online boutique accounts for [ EMA ] about 6% of our sales. But you see the image of brand of the collections becomes really fundamental there. And we see this thanks to the increasing number of customers who step into the store showing pictures they have seen online.

And we have to say that Callimacus was truly, truly instrumental here. And I would like to update you on this project. First of all, as Luca was saying, results, we delivering, we are pretty satisfied, not just for the economic results, but also for the quality of the traffic. So the traffic is steadily increasing, and the traffic -- visitors tend to stay there twice as long as before. And this actually proves that our customers are looking for something very specific, elegance, quality, contemporary style. And a lot of tips and lots of advice is asked for during the whole stay and on the website.

And then on the other hand, the great [ investments ], but it is somehow another kind of business for us. We are happy to announce that on September 28, Salesforce, you all know this company, and with whom we enjoy not just a business or professional, but also personal relation with Marc Benioff, [indiscernible] they have taken upon themselves the development and the growth of this invention of this project. So we have entrusted them with it, and we are very pleased that a great company such as Salesforce decided to invest in this project, not just for the novelty and the innovation brought about by the platform, but also because of this balance between manual skills and visual together and technology.

And besides, we are very happy to note that Microsoft, a few days ago, taking inspiration from us, decided to call it the human super intelligence, which for us is a confirmation of what we have always maintained. So the government not only authorized, but also sent a letter where they actually congratulated us on this deal.

Let's go back to physical for a second. All geographies have given a positive contribution to the 9 months growth, including the Middle East. In the last 9 months, it's been slightly positive, thanks to a great start in the first month of the year. And here, we have to get accustomed to the idea that every year, something may happen which is out of our control and may actually set us apart from our expectations.

At the beginning, we thought the Middle East would give us a good contribution. It's still a [ youngish ] area and geography for us, and it has -- it holds great expectations for us. But we also have to say that the American market was even more favorable than we originally expected it to be. And actually, a good part of the extra performance comes for us from the U.S., where in the first 9 months of the year, we grew by as much as 20%. And in the third quarter, we kept growing at 19% at constant exchange rates again. So the performance here is really, really good.

And then this beautiful expression is absolute luxury is growing in America, not only in terms of width, but also in terms of depth. And so we believe that our authentic luxury is becoming more and more rooted in the lifestyle of many American customers. As to department stores, they're still really important in the American market. And everything continues to do well for us with the [ Ecsiempo Luxury Group ]. There's [ 4 ] mutual satisfaction about the results. And we're growing in each of their 3 banners, Neiman Marcus, [ Saxenburg ], Berg Goodman. And within each banner, both Men's and Women's are growing. And positive results have been positive for all 3 quarters. And we had no problems on payments that were perfectly punctual at all times. We can also confirm that for winter 2027, we will extend the Men's and Women's location at Bergdorf, which we believe remains 1 of the most prestigious and most beautiful luxury stores in the world.

Now from the West, let's move to the East. We are just as happy with the results of Asia and China, in particular, which maintained a fine growth trend over the previous quarters. And about 14% of our global sales were posted from Asia from this region with a quiet and gradual and constant growth in market share. The Golden Week was very successful in all territories in our geographies.

And we we're discussing this with Pietro. One year ago, we said our brand seems to be experiencing a wonderful spring time in China. One year later, with revenue base, which is more significant. We seem to perceive the same fractions and to see the same excellent opportunities. Now we should remember at all times that we're specialized in ready-to-wear and clothing. At a time when the appeal and interest in this category is very high and growing, we have protected and favored by our size, starting with that of our notoriety.

Brunello in his [ code ] says that we don't seem to have massive notoriety, not in China. And hopefully, it will continue like this. But we can certainly benefit from the fact that many new customers have kind of discovered their brand. There's a lot of attention towards us. A lot of magazine covers were dedicated to our brand because of positioning image, but also because of the values we speak of. And when you dedicated magazine cover that meets the product is top trend.

There's a beautiful expression in Chinese tradition that says flowers in the spring, fruits in autumn. So we do trust really that the perseverance and the spirit of protection we've used in working in this region will truly bring us very good fruits for the future.

And even today, we're very happy to celebrate the opening of Casa Cucinelli in Shanghai and the extension of the Plaza 66 store, which is going to be completed before the end of the year. Finally, Europe, we believe it is solid and strong. Once again, the domestic customers are fundamental for the European market. And we are closing this -- the best quarter as a percentage and in absolute terms for the whole year.

We just completed the extension of the Geneva store. And I'd like to point this out because we actually carefully look at balancing investments carefully to obtain a well-balanced retail network across different continents. And finally, as far as the products are concerned, the first part of the year was marked by a very successful summer collection, and we can say the same about the winter collection, which is now in stores. We received very good feedback when we presented the collection to journalists, and we received very good feedback from our in-house buyers and the multi-brand clients. And now we see the appreciation from end customers, too. We see it in our own DOSs, and we see it in the wholesale channel too, which have already received numerous reorders.

It is good. It's important for us to underline that in these first 9 months, growth is entirely comparable and fully balanced between Men's and Women's. As to the good health of sell-out, as Luca said, we need to thank all of our collaborators who the season to enabled us to deliver the winter collection, which is currently in the stores with very, very interesting punctuality and a degree of craftsmanship that gives tribute to the capability of our creative teams to come up with these products and to the artisans who will make them.

Yes. We now stand at about 70% manual work in our construction, and this is really important. Yes. Once again, I'd like to point out that this capability is the outcome of the direct relationship we have with each and every one of them. We work with 400 artisan workshops that represent 9,000 individuals, 9,000 artisans. We had the first [ general meeting ] in -- on September 18, we met them, we shared work plans for next year with them. Because actually, our brands will be their work in order to. And we shared with them, the main challenges that concern us all, such as their fair pay, workplaces and the transmission of artisan know-how, which is fundamentally important for us. So here, once again, we still believe that the schools of style and how custom chip Solomeo are extremely important to us. Both are the main sources from which we draw to secure those manual skills and capabilities, which also pressures to our [ case model to our ] fashion house.

Back to products and to Luca's comments. We'll know that in every question, it's really important to have a fair balance of colors, shapes, and most importantly, weight and temperatures to follow the needs and requests of customers that are really located all over the world. Now this is precisely one of those issues which we discussed and we bring up with multi-brand customers. And the contribution is very valuable because they understand individual places and customers and service. It allows us to design our collections better and to decide what we do in our own data store assume.

Let's now talk about exchange rates. In the third quarter, the currency effect was still negative by a couple of points. But despite that, we successfully grew by 11.7% at current exchange rates in this quarter and 10% over the 9 months. For the fourth quarter, we still expect a slightly negative currency effect, which should mean that the exchange rate headwinds should be about 2.5 points by the end of the year.

Let's now look at the last quarter. Many of the pieces of evidence that we have presented so far support our confidence for the last part of the year. Last year in that quarter, we grew a value of about [ 15% ] in retail and achieved the best results of the 12 months. And despite this, we feel confident that we can achieve beautiful and organic growth, fully in continuity with the previous month. The lesser specific weight of the new openings in the second half of 2026 has already been reflected in our guidelines. And so we believe that today, we are in best possible conditions to complete this year as we imagine it with beautiful growth of 12%. And we can plan concretely for a healthy growth of [ 10% ] for 2027 as well.

Now let me say a couple of quick things about what Brunello said earlier, the movie. We're very happy with how the film has been received. The latest premier in Paris generated a really moving atmosphere. So next week, Brunello will be traveling into Asia. Unfortunately, [indiscernible]. And so the premier cycle is going to be completed in December with another premier to Hollywood in L.A. Yes. Actually, we would have wanted to go to the Middle East and Russia, and we are planning to go there as soon as it's feasible.

Just to give you a dissemination on the Italian market. The movie has been made available by the [ Sky ] platform in Italy last weekend. It's now available on the main British platforms, too. We are receiving very beautiful comments not just from our clients, but also from people who are less familiar with the story of Brunello. And so we believe that since [ Tornatore ] is the director of the film, this is the best way to tell the world about ourselves and our business that we're not familiar with our company, but also it's a really powerful tool for our [ fuel fall ] to really source motivation from what they see in the film of our way of doing business. And it should serve as a [ mail station ] for their work and their daily behaviors, too.

To say something as about the movie, it was translated in 8 languages and some titles in 9 other languages. So that's quite a good achievement. I mean, watching a movie in your own language will actually make a difference. It's -- we also prepared the translation of the movie in Arabic and Russian, and hopefully, we'll be able to use it as soon as possible.

Now let me say a couple of things about the forecasted for next year. After hearing from Luca and Riccardo, as we said, we think we will grow by 12% by the end of the year over 2026. The EBIT margin is expected to be around 17%, up from 16.8% last year. Investments should be around 6% by year-end. But please remember, do not think this is a low figure because when we speak of investments, we -- well, for the next 3 years, we always be around 6% because for the next 3 years, we're not going to have to make any further industrial investment because that's what we did in the last 3 years.

However, these investments on production, I'd like to give us a healthy and safety network for the next 10 years at least. Production is very good in present. The financial section is expected from -- to shift from 14% of revenues last year to about 10.5%. So from EUR 188 million to around EUR 160 million. So that was 2026.

As to 2027, these are forecasts, but reasonably concrete ones, given the excellent sellout year-to-date and having completely sales campaigns with good feedback on them. So because of all those factors, we may imagine that for the first half of next year, multi-brand stores and directly operated stores will be equipped with the products that have been very, very well received by the market.

So this gives us a good peace of mind. And so we can actually tell you that we are looking at the final forecast for the next year, where we are thinking of revenues growing by around 10%, investment, 6%. Please remember, this is not a lot of bigger net financial position improving further. And we have no plans to change the dividend policy. As usual, we expect to maintain our 50% proportion, and that's been going on for about 10 years now.

Okay. Let's take a few minutes for some other important information, and that we not draw questions. So we did meet at the beginning of October. We spent a couple of days together. So we have finished pretty much our old tools. We have completed collections, orders and so on. And so we get together to listen to people and to discuss and trade insights. So we met with clients, journalists, investors, analysts, bankers, and we gathered to picture together and to discuss who we are, who we are today, what we can expect for our future and to state once again our fundamentals for us right now when there are different visions on the future functions.

And we've discussed the greater things, the value of style and identity, the value of absolute luxury, the value of Made in Italy, the value of exclusivity, the value of uniqueness, the value of healthy growth, as you call it, value of healthy profit because that's the way we call it, the value of family, the value of generational turnarounds and handover brand, hopefully, of the brand's long life. So as to our great values, the one in which we have always believed, we want to restate them because this is a high time for us to really restate them because we need to survive for the coming decades.

We feel we enjoy a kind of excellent, healthy reputation. Of course, these are all this is a feedback that we all gave ourselves. Nine of us were present in attendance of family controlled over the company allows us to plan further ahead. This being a strong wish for the life of the company here in Solomeo. And as to the responsibility, well, of the -- it was the community as a whole, you are fully familiar with the Solomeo, and we always have to stand for the place where everything has a very place of the utmost importance to us.

And then even in times as favorable as the past few years have been for us, [ price ] allows us to work with greater serenity, and with it, greater creativity. Well, perhaps you can't really hear it, but there are the bells tooling and ringing with the Holy Mary chant tolling, and it's really all beautiful.

Then another thing, supporting and believing in healthy growth and healthy profit gives us strength and determination because you have -- we want to envisage that the enterprise will live for a long time. But this idea, this concept generates in every day, positivity everyday life, positivity, creativity and humanity. Because you see, creativity is stronger if it is surrounded by positivity and humanity in the working environment.

And then of course, what matters is also what we call humanistic capitalism. We need to believe and act so that the brand may live, hopefully, for more than a century. The really instrumental theme here, recruiting coworkers or others. We need to recruit people of integrity and empathy as coworkers. And wherever the atmosphere is pleasant, everything feels more human, harmonious, and people are far more creative. And I have to say that this is specifically felt now as much as we sell back in 2022, the pandemic.

You see, passing on craft -- and as I was saying, 70% of our designs are manual. Well, we fully believe that it is essential to raise wages and to make workplaces slightly more pleasant because after all, who would advise their own children to become manual workers? You see, this is the greatest wager for the future of products made with exceptional manual skill like ours is.

And then we need to continue to seek out talent and to recognize its value to us to build the company that is contemporary and human. You see, talent is important. But you see, talent means that someone is better at working with colors, the other thing. So we really need to be able to recognize talent.

And finally, the product, which we call our king. And we want to tell you how we build, we put together our product. You see human beings need to feel trendy every day by wearing fashionable products and wearing fashionable brands as history teaches us. And this need is really as old as humanity. And it does not just apply to clothing. Therefore, everything depends on how contemporary the product and the brand are.

We do not believe for a moment, absolute luxury is waning today. Quite the opposite. It is growing all the time. Actually, it is becoming even more important because everybody takes selfies then posts them. So we want to look better tomorrow than today.

How do we build our collections? Well, there about 100 work in the design department, of whom 19 are first level people have dedicated to menswear and womenswear, 50-50. They -- we are all in constant dialogue with 1 another. Well, we hold large meetings with everyone to discuss the Men's and Women's styles. And the market, everything is always organized collectively like we did yesterday.

We have never believed in collections made up largely of evergreens. For me, even the word evergreen, it really means that you make your collection age quickly. So it's not that you don't have to have them at all, but you see the their presence should be slightly less than what it is usually in the other collections. You see, visual merchandising plays a very important role here. We actually started off drawing inspiration from Ralph Lauren, and we want to keep it feeling grateful to him.

Visual merchandising and styling. These are in-house teams. The fact that we have our own in-house styling team means that we are able to daily, combine all the different items. And this really makes the difference because you then learn how to combine jackets, whether to where a tie with a denim or without a denim changes the whole picture. So even the schools that Riccardo was mentioning, these fully fledged schools, where usually the these schools, they welcome around 250 young men and women every year. They encompass every single kind of subject matter, visual, styling.

And we believe that as a result, what comes out of it is a strong identity, style identity. And this is the reason why in '23, '24, '25, this were -- we were presented with major awards. And they were all based on the identity of our brands, and we are very pleased with this. So we have our own identity. We continue to believe, as always, in no logo absolute luxury.

I have always been mistrustful about logos because some of you might know that I was modeling for [ Alesso ], the #1 sportswear in the world back then. And that's what happened when they use the logo, and the brand went downhill. You see, products should stand for authenticity, simplicity, familiarity, style and also manual skills, quality, creativity and exclusivity.

And exclusivity in particular, has -- is very much in the moment. It's always been a powerful theme in luxury, but especially now. So products must have an identity of style and lifestyle. And the style and lifestyle identity of our fashion house must always be embodied by a team, a team of people and never by a single individual. Because in our company, no one is allowed to make any decision alone. This is not part of our culture.

And this applies not only to the collection, we always discuss every single subject. So as far as product is concerned, well, it is [indiscernible] by myself with my 2 daughters, Camilla, Carlina and Riccardo. And this is my job. And I devote 80% of my time to it, product and communication.

But you see, product is my background. And if someone actually submits to me any financial deal, I'm not interested. Whereas if you submit to me a wonderful top-notch quality cashmere, then I'm interested. You see, we are working on cashmere denims, cashmere jeans. And I try them on today, and we are so happy with them. And this is what interests me the most, more than any financial deal that might be offered to me.

So final remarks. We have always claimed that products and brands go out of fashion quickly and perhaps far faster than we imagined. Therefore, this is what matters the most. And [ Sean de la Prue ] reminds us of it when he was writing in the age of the [ tanking Liatos ] in 1688. You see he was a writer, someone who was savvy about fashion. And he wrote a statement that I agree with fully. One fashion has just barely replaced another when it is itself replaced by a new one, which in turn yields to the one that follows. And that would not be the last, and such is our fickleness.

So if we look up -- if you look at the word fashion in the dictionary, it says in fashion, out of fashion, it means that it is a passing trend. And this applies to everything, in restaurants, night clubs, bars, music. When I listen to some music, you see, and my daughters turn up and they say, what kind of music, outdated music are you listening to? So if this is so, we must work even more intensely to try and remain contemporary and modern.

And how? Well, we need to listen to the market without ever compromising on our taste and style identity. Then 1 minute on generation and changeover. At 58, I set up a [ year vocal ]. English is by trust, and I started talking about this with Moreno when I was 50. And this was to be for the benefit of my 2 daughters, currently our Vice President. So during -- according to -- pursuant to this [indiscernible]. During my lifetime, I may act freely the day after my passing as far as our fashion house is concerned, everything is already settled. So no worries there.

At 63, I took on the role of Executive Chairman and Creative Director and decided to appoint 2 Chief Executive Officers, Riccardo and Luca, Riccardo from the family and Luca from outside, whom we nonetheless consider family. And on average, they are, lucky them, only 47 years old. So I really strongly wanted to create some sort of alliance in terms of values and generations.

So I strongly wanted to build this alliance. So some of you, quite likely, 1 day, we might write what happens after Brunello. Well, after Brunello, as today, the company will remain in the hands of many capable people where all -- everybody is useful, but none is indispensable. And you see this is what we have always cherished because we are not the owners of the company, mind you, but we are its major shareholders and those chiefly responsible for it, but the company itself belongs to the world.

Let us conclude by saying that, undoubtedly, we are experiencing a wonderful momentum for our fashion house across the world. And we can also add that things are going even better than we expected. We work serenely, always very focused and always aware that -- for both the products and the brand, we must be truly exclusive, contemporary, unique modern, and why not, cool. If we're not cool, it doesn't work that way.

So thank you so much. And now we have all the time in the world for your Q&As. You see, this was this was supposed to be wanting to restate who we are today and who we aspire to be in about 10, 15 years. And we have walked you through this discussion. Let's open up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question will be asked by Chiara Battistini of JPMorgan, please.

[Interpreted] Good afternoon, Brunello and everyone. I have two questions, please. So the first question is about the North America is still performing really well. Can you please [ press ] some more details about the product mix you sell in there? Or better, the mix between existing consumers and new consumers and how loyal existing customers behave in terms of their spending patterns? And what about the price mix in North America? We are seeing some changes there?

My second question is about your strategy for force. I think that new openings are focusing mainly on larger stores. So can you please remind us of the average size of your stores? And where do you think we are adding in terms of the optimal size for new stores?

And finally, I need a clarification. I think -- you said that October is off to a good start. So we didn't get it right, is Q4 going as well as the rest of the year?

[Interpreted] Yes, Chiara, you've got that right. Q4, beginning of Q4 is as good as the rest of the year. Now for North America, people tend to buy beautiful [indiscernible], and they tend to buy entire outfits. So much depends on what the test and how you mix it, especially managed that really makes it a good. If you -- you can buy it to suit and then just used a jacket with denim, causes. It's important to suggest it. And so this is why styling is so important and how we present it.

As to the size of the stores, pretty much unchanged. 500 to 600 square meters for large cities, 400 square meters monthly for a second-tier city. And then for smaller tourist locations that we -- they may be like 70 square meters as much as [ 600,000 ] -- 600 square meters in Pacific. But nothing much has changed. We do believe it's really important for customers to see how we put things together and with 5 of them.

Callimacus helps a lot there because people ask Callimacus, I'm going to enlight, what should I were. And Callimacus provides suggestions and examples. So we have seen to be very, very in it is true. We do 7% on e-commerce. But people normally walk into the stores with some predone research from the website before. So people are looking for unique, beautiful, well done, well construct things, were styled. And so well put together. So this is what Ralph Lauren has been teaching us for like 50 years now. So put things together, style them well, and that they should be very, very charming. Thank you.

Next question will come from the English conference, and it will be asked by Adrien Duverger of Goldman Sachs, please.

The first one would be on the different geographies. Have you seen any differences in terms of the consumer spending patterns between the U.S., Europe and Asia? My second question would be around margins. So with the recent investments in the production capacity in retail and in client engagement, which should support long-term growth, when could we expect these investments to begin generating stronger operating leverage? And what could drive margins above the current gradual progression?

[Interpreted] Thank you, Adrien. As to customer habit and behavior, one of our states is what Brunello was saying before. So the ability to sell more than an individual product, but rather, making our customers fall in love with a complete. And this is visible in U.S., Asia and Europe alike. The way our customers behave in different geographies is really similar.

[Interpreted] Yes. This is Brunello speaking. We set from the events we organized, normally organized events with 100 to 150 guests. And our customers are very similar throughout the world.

As to your question on margins, Adrien, we need to say that we are already very happy with the fact that over time, year after year, we are improving successfully. So that means the investments we are making are going hand-in-hand with the return of those same investments. Now this is true for retail, for the growth of our stores network where, of course, retail expansion goes together with higher personnel cost and rental cost.

But we've always appraised the size of our investments carefully in order not to have a bad impact on P&L, but whether we have some operating leverage at the end of the year, which is what we expect for this year. And let me add that the investments we've done over the last few years have been focused on developing production capacity, first and foremost

I would like to say something else too. I mean, should we decide to raise prices by 15% tomorrow morning, we may still sell successfully. But this strategy of having a healthy profit is a business-related strategy. We're not -- see what I mean? I mean, we're not looking for anything unusual. If I were a young buyer, I would really look at what companies do. I mean, if margins are reasonable, I would be very captive. They are too high, that would kind of other me. Someone certain to that car and is it no because they are even too profitable. So questions that customers put to the forefront are very diverse. I mean, if we get the 20 basis points more, we'll be happy, but we want to change our strategy. That's the key thing.

Next question will be asked by Charles-Louis Scotti of Kepler Cheuvreux.

I have three, the first one on the store network. Could you give us an idea of the contribution of the new store openings to organic growth over the first 9 months? It seems that this contribution has been more significant than in previous year. And if you could give us also some granularity by region? This will be also helpful.

My second question is on Europe, where the growth doubled in Q3 compared to the first half. What were the main drivers behind this acceleration? And when it's related to a recovery in tourist spending? And if so, which nationalities contributed the most?

And lastly, I know that you are relatively underpenetrated in China. So you may not be fully representative of the broader market there. However, given the recent tax reforms that is targeting affluent Chinese consumers, have you seen any impact on demand? And have you also experienced the same trading patterns as some of your peers with a more challenging over in China and some kind of improvement in September and October?

[Interpreted] So I will answer on China because we have seen the cover of major trends in China. We don't have high revenues, but the brand exclusivity plays a high role. We were awarded very important prices. So it is a healthy brand.

When a few days ago, some Chinese investors came to visit, 1 Chinese vessel of them said, "Well, your brand in China is all the rage. We could have 3 great years ahead of us." And I replied, yes, but this does not mean that we want to open 20 stores a year, enjoy great profits and so that he can make money, and then our brand is down the drain. So we want to be slightly and stay slightly exclusive and unique and exclusive.

And this is a topic we mentioned during our meeting in October. And it is very important. And contribution of new space is organic growth, as I was saying before, Luca is speaking now is always very well balanced. Where as far as Europe is concerned, we enjoyed a good summer. Partly, it was expected because Europe is the main tourist destination in the summer. And also, local customers also played an important role. Yes, very, very important frameless, local customers are very important.

In the first 3 quarters, we had double-digit growth in retail across Europe. In all 3 quarters, actually, we had excellent restocking and reorders of multi-brand European multi-brand clients. And this has resulted in this Q3 growth in revenues. But our feedback judgment on Europe does not change. It's the thing that we said before. We believe that we have a distribution network that is quite good in Europe, and I think we believe we have very key customers there.

[Interpreted] Brunello now. As I was saying before, I don't think that the interest for luxury is waning or shrinking. Customers are in the lookout for more exclusive, more unique products, truth be told. And also the fact that we do not have a considerable size in China, that's also what matters. And we want to still pursue exclusivity there because I attach apartment importance to.

When I was -- I was saying before, eyewear and fragrances are going really well there, but their positioning is extremely high. You see average price, retail price is EUR 800 for our eyewear. As Luxottica said, this is the high end EUR 280, for fragrances. So everything we do, we would like to have it positioned in 1 single segment, which is the absolute luxury one.

Next question from Alberto Cecchetto, Citi.

[Interpreted] Yes, Alberto Cecchetto speaking. Congratulations on your results. My first question concerns wholesale. I would like to know whether the 7% acceleration in Q3 also includes the timing of shipments? And what about wholesale performance in Q4?

Second question, I would like more color on the progress of mix in like-for-like. And to what extent the product mix how actually product mix tends to change from the start to the end of the customer life from the first purchase to the adoption of the total look, for example?

[Interpreted] Riccardo. I can answer on the product mix. We see a homogeneous progress. On the 1 hand, collections have increasingly high weight of manual work. And you saw, Alberto, as far as collection are concerned, [ it ] is pretty strong in our collection. And we have a very refined, sophisticated, hand-made, pretty costly and expensive collection.

But 1 year, it could be knitwear is all the rage, then it's the T-shirts and trousers. There are no significant changes there. Riccardo is back on the line.

[Interpreted] Yes. What we were saying both thanks to our salespeople and Callimacus, the -- we achieved great results. I put it together the outfit. You see -- by the way, we forgot to talk about sales associates. This really is paramount because when you step into the store, generally speaking, other brands have this idea of wanting to hassle you to sell you at all costs. Whereas if you want to try and push something and force something upon me, I will definitely abandon your store.

And we were talking to all sales associates the other day. We were saying to them, do not push. I said -- that was the first thing I mentioned. Of course, they are sales associates, they receive 85% of our revenues -- sorry, their wages are fixed. So -- but if you behave like that with me, if you have some, I will stop coming into your store. I actually stepped into a store the other day, the 2 sales associates were just browsing to their phone. And I just left. I've never seen it before, some precedented. They were sitting down, and they were basically checking their phones. And they asked me, "Yes, what would you like?" We're not even standing up to welcome me. And this really, really matters, you know, so much so that it is definitely not easy to find the right people for your stores because they need to work on Saturdays, Sundays.

And yes, this is definitely another important topic as Brunello -- as Luca is saying, because we want people to be amiable. Because at the end of the day, if you are a customer in a restaurant or in a store, as soon as you're step in, you immediately are met by the kind of atmosphere in the store itself. So also we are really able to put together the team, individual people, but the general atmosphere is very pleasant.

Yes, Brunello repeats. We do not want to be hassled. And it's not -- then I will stop coming to your store to your brand and shopping from your brand altogether. That's why we want to keep guaranteeing 85% of fixed salaries. So that there is no rivalry that is peaked, that is stored among the different associates. You see -- there was someone who was really was insisting on me buying a car. And in the end, I bought it from someone else. So Alberto, we can say -- what we don't want to be done to us, we don't want done to others, vice versa.

Then about your whole question on wholesale, so very punctual shipment and grade restocking, as Riccardo was saying. You see, Brunello says this production structure that we put together is very flexible. And if you are able to restock and reassort in just a few days, you see it's not the same as doing the reorder in just in a month or so. So things are going well, also thanks to the taste, the style of the collection, also the value of the brand that we can say the [indiscernible] right now. And this makes the difference. So I don't know whether we answered your question. Hopefully, we did.

The next question is going to be asked by Maria Meita of Bernstein, please.

I have a follow-up, and then a second question. So first, it's actually on wholesale. And my question is given the significant acceleration that you have seen this quarter. And sort of looking maybe beyond the fourth quarter, what are your growth expectations for the channel in the next year?

And then second, you have obviously acquired a lot of customers, both in the U.S. and China over the past quarters. And I was wondering if these show the same loyalty and sort of return purchases as previous cohorts given the acceleration in growth in this region?

[Interpreted] Well, I can answer myself, this is Brunello. Well, this acceleration between 4% and 7% is not just due to new clients, but also to quicker reorders. Also because in terms of absolute values versus last year, we are talking about a growth of EUR 8 million to EUR 9 million. So I mean, collection, which is slightly more or less attractive already makes a difference.

As to purchasing behavior, we see no big difference. I mean, we have a lock multibrand in Tokyo or in Hamburg or Harrods in London, then they hold just as well. We have 440 multibrand customers globally, but it said something beautiful. I like it very much. We look for a beautiful young multi-brand stores that are likely to become the leading multi-brand stores in the next 10 to 20 years.

The 440 multibrand stores we have today, as an average, have anywhere between 120 and 125 years of age. It was that our multi-brand store in [ Bari ] recently and [ 8 ] old stores. And it's joyful. I mean, customers walk in, they chat away, and then they say they like to see a brand or another. And it's a very interesting selection in terms of their taste. And so when customers walk by, less time in a brand, you realize their reaction is different immediately. It's really, really interesting to spend time at multi-brand stores, also because they have a very open judgment about what they see.

So if I say the ag collection is showing, so well, that's the comment you never receive from your in-house store team. They'll always tell you, you are fantastic, but they've seen nothing from outside, whereas multibrand customers have seen like 300 collections every season.

So the next question will be asked by Andrea Randone of Intermonte, please.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone, and congratulations on your results. I have a curiosity. You answered many questions already. It's about the movie. What impact did it have on usage of the website? Did you see any interaction there? And in particular, did you have any new information about the traffic on the website?

I was also interested to understand how you're seeing your customers because your brand suggest cultural values too. And so the success you're experience in China today is maybe something that could not have been done 10 years ago. The cultural backdrop brand like yours was not there 10 years ago. So what's the impact of the website, what's the impact of the movie? And what are the possible new areas where you might actually grow the brand in the next 5 years, but maybe areas where it's less known?

[Interpreted] Well, Andrea, I'll try and answer you first. So the movie is actually raising a lot of interest and growing interest. And it's about what Brunello was saying in this call. And as you pointed out, our communication is based on principles and values and fundamentals. And the movie is about this, also failures, Andrea.

Now when kids are 15, they should be able to be successful on do something in their life. When I was 15, I didn't have that kind of pressure. So this happens with very young people, they feel a lot of pressure. Yes, this morning at the Board of Directors meeting, we were talking about a U.S. boy, a very young one in his 20s, a son of an acquaintance of ours, who wrote a beautiful message and says I saw myself mirroring in the story of young Brunello because I feel these values as my own. And even in failures, even in starting from scratch.

So Andrea, these are important values in. It's also truly in the first part of the movie, there is this whole part and life in the countryside, which is just no longer existing without electric light or whatever, it looks a bit poetic. But the movie is really very satisfactory for us.

You were asking whether it has an impact? Well, hopefully, yes. And for 2 years, I spent 60 hours in interviews. It was quite fun. But at the same time, it was quite demanding, but care is the name of the brand around.

Next question will be asked by Oriana Cardani of Intesa Sanpaolo.

[Interpreted] Good evening, Brunello. Good evening, everyone. I have a question on France. I was wondering, have you noticed lately, local French credit customers are slightly weaker, so to speak, than customers in other European nationalities? What is the weight of France overall and whether the weight of tourism in France is slightly higher than the average of the group or whether it is in line?

[Interpreted] Well, we do not see any marked difference coming from French customers. France for us still accounts for an important European market as well as for visibility because France is always -- will always be France. Paris will always be Paris.

There are 2 different, so to speak, realities. You see fashion, there's the home of fashion, Paris, it's Milan, London. My neighbor back in the years on Saturdays, he would fly to Paris to shop there because his wife wanted to come home sporting her carrier bags with the brand, Chanel Paris. So perhaps you are thinking of this slightly -- slight demonstrations and stuff.

You see, I myself was brought up in the end of the '60s, and I grew up with all the demonstrations in November in 1968. So I know all about it. But I think that we really are in dire need, kind of a young cultural evolution is called for. So I think that we need to change something to bring about change, truth be told.

Besides the business, young people -- well, I am positively impressed by the fact that the demonstrators are 17, 18 years of age, right, Moreno?

[Interpreted] Yes, we lived through it. So allow me, but there is a need for raising the awareness of these young people. They need to be aware that something needs to change. Luca?

[Interpreted] We are performing pretty well in France, double-digit growth. And as to the weight, I would say, approximately half of the Italian markets, perhaps even less. But the average that you enjoy once you have a presence in Paris or Saint Tropez in French Riviera is really a high level. We always go through Paris. And whenever we travel, we stop over there, and we always take a look around. And fashion is really high on the agenda there.

Next question by Natasha Bonnet, Morgan Stanley.

This is Natasha Bonnet from Morgan Stanley. First, yes, for 2027 for your growth of 10%, can you clarify your expectations of retail versus wholesale and also your store opening plan for '27? So what should we be expecting in terms of contribution of space next year?

My second question is just on the U.S., if you could clarify what has been the split of sales between new and existing clients for the brand for the past 9 months? And then the third is we've observed the reduction in Brunello Cucinelli products available online at a discount. To what extent does this reflect stronger full price sell-through and healthier underlying demand versus a deliberate tightening of the off-price distribution? So are you seeing an improvement in full price sales across your wholesale partners?

[Interpreted] Well, Natasha, as far as the expectation for 2027 is concerned, we believe that 10% is delivered by a retail that grows above 10% and then a single-digit wholesale, yes, mid-single digits. So the result of the wholesale in the first 9 months is somehow a proxy of what we expect in the coming year.

Then as far as the ratio between new and existing customers, we benefit from a positive contribution from both. So spending from both. Yes, we had estimated 470,000 clients. And now at the end of this year, perhaps we have 20,000 more compared to our estimates. But across the world, we should have about 500,000 customers.

Then as far as the online performance is concerned, I am pleased that you perceived a reduction of discounted products. It was just a kind of awareness raising operation that we performed. When we talk with our multi-brand customers, well, we wanted to convey this message during the sales campaign, and it was welcomed and received promptly. As for the rest, it is important to restate that this is a quite negligible phenomenon that in no way impacts our full price sales. It is something that is somehow natural in the remained goods in clothing. Because by nature [indiscernible].

[Interpreted] Brunello. I have never met a customer who said I saw a price that was highly discounted. Because the truth is that we need to be exclusive in the number of stores because exclusivity ranks very high for us. And at least for us, you should not sell a coat for $18,000 and then an entry price item $400. This is something that will never happen. We will never have an entry price, first product, first-line. No way, because this runs counter idea of true luxury. Luca, I'm sorry for the interruption.

[Interpreted] No, no, but I was done. Thank you.

Next question, Nik Lafioniatis, RBC.

Just 1 for me, please. On the 2027 guidance, could you please confirm if that 10% growth is in reported terms or organic? And then you kindly provided the FX impact for the current year. Could you say without any early invasions of the FX into the coming year? That's 1 for me.

[Interpreted] So the impact on this year, at the end of the year, 2.5, the negative exchange rate effect. As for the guidance for 2027, we do it at constant exchange rates. Yes, that's the way it is, Brunello says. This is just normal.

[Interpreted] Nik, I would like to add, we always look at constant exchange rates. But as a matter of fact, financially speaking, current exchange rates also matters. So at the end of the year, we always have to come to terms with this. So that's the true revenues.

Next question by Paola Carboni, Equita.

[Interpreted] Yes. Thank you for taking my question. So I will be brief. About the reassortments that you mentioned before, your idea was to be able to restock in 16 days. I think that this is a pretty important result, and I was wondering, how does this compare with the past? How has your capabilities changed from this point of view? And do you maybe have pursued different policies in the retail or and in the wholesale channel? And perhaps, does this -- was this helpful for -- to result in the high performance of the brand?

[Interpreted] Yes, Moreno says it's a very interesting question, but there is never any difference. On the contrary, we always -- so in first -- so it's not really a proportional -- proportionate, the revenues. You see, we still have the same number of items in our collection, [indiscernible] like many years ago. Of course, our collection is 85% clothing.

So I'm not saying that it is easier. But we have always maintained that you are able to restock earlier. And to ship earlier, you have a higher opportunity, but not just for sale because your shop window looks better and your boutique looks better. [ Albert Eco ] 30 years ago used to say to me, if I fit the wind, a shop window in June with you delivering 3 days before, if a competitor arrives 3 days later, I will not take down your clothes there. So your advantages lies precisely in the fact of delivering of shipping earlier.

So delivering a few days earlier translates in an advantage. Of course, you do not change your shop windows every night overnight. But what matters the most is that your brand needs to be healthy, your product needs to be young, and your visual merchandising must be specifically appealing. We came back from our travels across the world for research and visual merchandising by esteemed -- Ralph Lauren is always excellent, the way they show the product, the way they display, the way they combine it.

And you see if you're blending, putting together pairing items in a way, it's not the same as in a different way. A specific footwear at with the suit make -- ages the suit and the opposite if the footwear is the right one. You see, important -- the product is really important. But if your brand ages, your product ages along the same lines.

And let me wrap up by saying that I was modeling for [ Alesso ] 1982, top in the world in 1984. It was the owner called me and said to me, Brunello, take a look at this collection. You're young. Why are we not able to sell it? And I said, well, because they are fed up with your logo. It was a beautiful collection, but the logo had aged. The company had aged, and now people -- nobody wanted to buy. So I don't want to really tie you, but this is the way it works.

Next question, [ Deborah Aitken ], [indiscernible].

I'd like to understand a little bit on your basket sizes, please, by region. What are those average basket sizes, and how have they moved? And then also, it's great if you could give us some updated detail on your cohort by income level across those regions, please?

[Interpreted] Well, as you know, our business by geography is very similar to our business by nationality if we got your question right. So it's a good proxy. I mean, when we look at geographical data, that's a good, very good proxy of the data by nationality. Of course, Europe receives coverers and tourists from the rest of the world.

But what we can tell you is that the collection is the same globally. And so there are no specific products that are designed only for China only for America or whatever. What may be different in different locations is sizing, of course, because sizing in Athens and Hamburg may be very different. And the actual [ worms ] and weight. So you're buying for Athens should be much lighter things than for Hamburg. But there's no specific collection design for any specific location.

Now let me tell you something else. There was a Chinese partner some years ago, he said, why don't we do some striped cashmere sweaters? We could sell 10,000, but we never did it and we did not want to because the style and design identity should remain the same at all times. We need to change sizes and weights for different nationalities because, of course, if you sell to Japanese or German customers, that's completely different.

Next question from Melania Grippo, BNP Paribas.

[Interpreted] I have 1 question. If you [indiscernible] of the opening and expansion in Q4 and also 2027, what would you say on this?

[Interpreted] So as far as Q4 is concerned, we envisage an extension of the Geneva store, as we were saying, as well as the Shanghai Plaza one. That 1 will happen right to the end of the year. So then, 2027 major openings are following the extension of China award in Beijing, as well as a second store still in Beijing. And we have postponed to early 2027 from 2026, the opening of the Abu Dhabi store, the growth, which had been planned for September this year, but it was brought forward -- brought ahead.

[Interpreted] But Melania, what we want to say to you -- Brunello speaking -- is you never know if the opportunity arises, then you must be able to seize it. But our strategy remains unchanged, opening 3 or 4 a year, maybe restoring, refurbishing a couple, expanding another couple. This is the strategy to try and stay exclusive.

Of course, we need to do our maths. In order to achieve a level of growth, the ideal level of growth, 10%. So 3% or 4% is the price mix out of this 10%, but the strategy stays the same. So it was a good question from you to ask us where, what the destinations are of our openings, but you can really not really know. Because if the great opportunity comes to you, we need -- you need to seize it. But at the very same time, we should not change our growth rate or our growth strategy because otherwise, we do not compromise on that.

Yes, we grew well over the past 3 years, and you quite rightly say, wow, what's an extraordinary growth. But this is not true. We grew by 10%, 11%, 12%, but we do not believe that this is really preposterous. Because if we were to consider the 3-year period from '21 to '23 across the fashion industry, we all doubled, whereas '24, '25, '26, I would call it a healthy growth in this 3-year period.

So there was a good rebalancing. And besides, our growth was very steady and gradual. So someone asked, how can you do that? How can you grow like that? Well, we will grow by just 10%. And the company needs to grow at least by 4%, 5% to bear cost and support the organization. So we are basically reaping the benefits of the fact that we are in a good momentum for our brand, but the strategy does not change as a result of that.

You do not expect us to double our openings. Because that's basically what the Chinese investor was saying the other day that I mentioned, yes, of course, we can open 25 stores a year. And then what you do, then you exit your investment is you've made a lot of money. And so I said this is not the right way ahead because you need to move slowly and steadily, not all of a sudden because we would like to try and stay here for many years.

Next question. It's a follow-up from Natasha Bonnet, Morgan Stanley.

Just a quick question on net debt. I know you gave the guidance for this year, but can you share what you have in mind for your net debt position for the -- what you're aiming for, for the end of 2027?

[Interpreted] So the idea is that it will be improving. We have planned for investments of around 6%, dividend policy unchanged. So it -- there will be no changes in terms of strategy. So we are -- what worries us the most is to still be appealing and to design beautiful collections.

[Interpreted] It is a healthy growth. Allow me. And here too, we have established a dividend policy of around 50% 10 years ago. And so you basically have a different strategy than track ours, we like it this way. And we don't think that we are a company in debt at it's not on half of EBITDA. So we still have this trend. But for the first half, we are sure that we have beautiful collections on display. And of course, for the second half of '27, fall/winter, we're still working on it.

There are no further questions booked.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Thank you very much. Have a nice evening. And if you have any follow-up questions, Pietro is available for questions. Thank you, and good night.

Chorus Call operator speaking. The conference call is over. You can now disconnect your phones. Thank you.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

[Interpreted] Hello. Good evening, and welcome to the presentation of the First Half Results 2026, H1 2026 Results of the Fashion House, Brunello Cucinelli. Speakers will be Brunello Cucinelli, the Executive Chairman and Creative Director; Luca Lisandroni, CEO; Riccardo Stefanelli, CEO; Dario Pipitone, CFO; Moreno Ciarapica, Co-CFO, Senior; and Pietro Arnaboldi, Investor Relations and Corporate Planning Director.

[Operator Instructions] Now I'd like to give the floor to Brunello Cucinelli. The floor is yours.

[Interpreted] So here, we are -- good evening. It's slightly hot here. Actually, we are pushing 40 degrees Celsius. So good evening, and welcome to all of you. I'm sure you're all a bit exhausted because it's been a full week of reporting, but I'm particularly pleased in general. It is the first time we are presenting the full half year results as of 30th of July because we've always broken down in two, but we were able to do so, and we are particularly pleased. So I want to thank the team who made this possible.

So the call will play out as follows: I will take you through the key highlights. Dario, our CFO, will provide more details, more colors. Then I will share our detailed view on the final outlook for 2026, together with good visibility on 2027 as we have almost completed the spring/summer 2027 menswear and womenswear order collection. And honestly, it concluded with excellent results.

Luca will then provide you with a global overview of our markets. Riccardo will speak to you briefly about our factories. They're all fully operational. And also, he will talk about the new European regulations concerning the disposal of end-of-life garments. Finally, I will discuss our wonderful e-commerce project and our Callimacus platform in which my friend, Marc Benioff of Salesforce has invested, describing it as innovative and capable of rethinking digital experiences through AI.

Let me read out. So excellent results, which allow us to slightly raise our revenue growth estimates for the full year. We, therefore, expect growth at constant exchange rates of between plus 10% and plus 11% in 2026 compared to an initial estimate of 10%. In the first half, the very significant increase in revenues is accompanied by an improvement in profitability and by the confirmation of a solid balance sheet structure. Revenues as of 30th of June equaling EUR 749 million, up 13.3% at constant exchange rates and 9.5% at current exchange rates.

Retail channel, up 19.3% at constant exchange rates with a double-digit increase across all reference markets and a very positive second quarter, plus 18.6% at constant exchange rates. The wholesale channel also confirms a solid trend in both quarters with a rise of 2.7% at constant exchange rates as of 30th of June '26. Growth widespread across all geographies with revenues at constant exchange rates up by 20% -- sorry, 20.6% I said that I would not read the decimals, but I'm reading them. With 20.6% in Americas, 5.3% in Europe, plus 14.1% in Asia and particularly significant the contribution of China. Well, China is 13%. Mind you, this is very important to remember.

EBIT equaling EUR 128.2 million, up 12.6% compared to the first half of '25 with a margin of 17.1%, rising from 16.6% as of 30th of June last year. Net profit equaling EUR 78.2 million, plus 2% compared to 30th of June with an incidence of 10.4% of revenues. Investments standing at EUR 57.2 million with an incidence of 7.6% compared to EUR 63.5 million last year, incidence of 9.3%. Commercial investments are on the rise, whereas production investments decreased following the full completion at the end of 2025 of the new factories and of the expansion of the Solomeo headquarters.

The greater part of the investment plan envisage for 2026 was carried out in the first 6 months of the year. Net financial debt for the core business equaling EUR 225.1 million compared to EUR 197 million at June 30, '25. We confirm the expectation of quite a significant reduction in debt by the end of the year compared to the levels of 31st December '25, supported by the cash generation expected in the second part of the financial year and by the timing of the 2026 investment plan concentrated mainly in the first part of the year.

Then sales campaign. This is another important point. So spring/summer 2027 sales campaign, the collection of orders for men's is close to completion and that for women's is currently underway with extremely positive feedback for both collections. So aware of the solidity of our business model and of the pleasant atmosphere that we continue to feel around our brand, we envisage a healthy revenue growth of around 10% for 2027. Significant recognition of the technological value on the international development potential of the artificial intelligence platform developed by Solomei AI, called Callimacus with important investment by Salesforce, world leader in AI-based CRM solutions.

Now my quote. So we closed the first half of the year with results that we view as truly, truly outstanding. We have the impression that the brand is enjoying exceptionally favorable momentum across the world with our boutiques embodying our stylistic identity, our way of working and also our way of engaging with others and the lifestyle in which we have [indiscernible].

This generally rewarding way of working allows us to experience the variety of true luxury to which we have always aspired, exclusive yet gracious, a luxury defined by products and outstanding quality, exceptional craftsmanship and genuine exclusivity. Order intake for men's and women's spring/summer '27 collections has been excellent. Equally encouraging has been the start of sales for the fall/winter '26 collections, now available in our boutiques. Encouraged by these highly positive indicators, we are raising our guidance for full year 2026, increasing our expected growth from 10% to 10%-11%. We also remain highly confident about 2027 when we anticipate delivering healthy growth of around 10%. Now Dario will give you the finance details.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Brunello . So I would use the analyst presentation analyzing the main financial economic performance in the first half. As already anticipated by Brunello when commenting on the press releases, revenues amounted to EUR 749.4 million, up 13.3% at constant exchange rates and 9.5% at current exchange rates. We reported very solid growth across all geographies and across both distribution channels. Thanks to the strong revenue performance, and Luca will comment this more in detail later, the income statement on Slide 17 shows an overall balanced structure in terms of margins and costs, with EBIT increasing by 12.6%, growing more than proportionally compared to revenues and reaching EUR 128.2 million, corresponding to a margin of 17.1% of revenues.

Net profit, EUR 78.2 million or 10.4% margin on revenues. The first margin at 75% of revenues increased by 50 basis points compared to the previous period in terms of revenue incidence. This improvement is mainly attributable to the sales mix achieved during the period. As to the channel mix, we refer to the positive contribution of the growth of the retail business whose incidents in the two time periods went from 63.7% in '25 to 66.7% in June 2026.

As far as geographies are concerned, the positive contribution mainly comes from the growth reported in America and Asia, which are the regions characterized by a markup structure that is more supportive of the first margin. It is, however, important to underline that this effect becomes neutral at EBIT level due to the related commercial costs, which in these same regions are also proportionally higher. Operating costs, excluding depreciation, increased by 8.7% compared to the first half of the previous year and reflect the continued growth of our fashion house.

So Slide 19 to have more color on the main costs, rents, personnel and communication. So we can say that personnel costs as of 30th of June 2026 amounted to EUR 138.4 million, representing an increase of 10.2% with an incidence in line with 30th of June 2025, 18.5%. Our human resources amounted to 3,543 full-time equivalents, an increase of 260 FTEs compared to June last year. This increase is down both to the targeted expansion of our retail network following the opening of new stores, store expansions and Casa Cucinelli realized from the second half of last year until June 30 and to the development of our production structure, both in terms of direct manufacturing personnel and the teams managing and coordinating our extensive network artisans and supplies of precious raw materials.

Rental costs, net of the effects deriving from the application of IFRS 16 amounted to EUR 117.3 million, up 12% compared to EUR 104.7 million of last year. This increase is mainly ascribable to the new and selected openings as well as expansions carried out during the second part of the year and some contract renewals. And then to conclude, communication investments amounted to EUR 45.8 million, up 3.1% compared to EUR 44.4 million last year with an incidence that went from 6.1% of revenues last year to 6.5% this year.

The planning of our marketing activities foresees, as Brunello was saying, a greater concentration of events in the second half of the year. Therefore, we expect the related incidence on revenues at year-end to be higher compared to the figure reported in the first half. To conclude with depreciation and amortization, as a result of all this, EBIT amounted to EUR 128.2 million, up 12.6% with an operating margin of 17.1% compared to 16.6% last year. Following this improvement in operating profitability and after financial management showing net financial charges of EUR 18.4 million due to a significant reduction in foreign exchange gains together with a tax rate of 28.8%, which we consider a healthy level for an Italian, Italy-based company. Net profit at June 30, 2026, amounted to EUR 78.2 million, 10% of revenues.

Before completing the income statement, I would like to briefly return to the comment on financial management with the support of Slide 20, where we have included the usual breakdown highlighting the component that we could define as recurring, which is the basis on which we can project our expectations for the year, a component related to the foreign exchange fluctuations and an additional component, including the effects deriving from hedging activities and equity investments. The ordinary recurring component amounted to EUR 20.1 million and showed a slight increase compared to the previous year, EUR 17.3 million, mainly due to higher net financial charges related to the characteristic net financial debt, which we will comment on in more detail later.

Now Slide 21. Now I will comment the main balance sheet items, some comments on net working capital, investments and net financial debt. Net working capital, including net other current assets and liabilities amounted to EUR 317.6 million, corresponding to 21.6% of rolling last 12 months revenues as of June 30, 2026, compared to 22.6% last year and 22.2% last year June and this 22.2% December 2025. Looking at the individual components, trade receivables show a slight increase of 6.8% mainly ascribable to the natural evolution of the business and the timing of some shipments related to the fall/winter 2026 collection.

We consider our trade receivables to be extremely healthy, both thanks to the quality of our overdue receivables with the level of receivables outstanding beyond 90 days, showing a significant reduction compared to both December and June and due to the very limited levels of losses recognized in the income statement, which were virtually negligible during the first half of the year. Payment terms towards suppliers, collaborations and external consultants remained unchanged with trade payables amounting to EUR 171.6 million, slightly lower compared to previous periods.

Inventory incidents on rolling last 12 months revenues stood at 28.6%, substantially in line with both June 30 and December 31, 2025, 28.2%. This is a level that we view as healthy and consistent with the ordinary requirements of our business model. Net other current assets and liabilities showed a negative balance of EUR 42.4 million at June 30, 2026, compared to EUR 9.7 million at December 31, 2025. This change is mainly ascribable to the fair value measurement of derivative instruments used to hedge foreign exchange risk and related fluctuations as well as changes in the balance of tax receivables and tax payables.

Moving now on investments on Slide 22. As of 30th of June 2026, 7.6% of our revenues vis-a-vis 9.3% of the previous year and represent the majority of the investment plan expected for full year 2026, and they amounted to EUR 57.2 million. In detail, EUR 38 million in significant commercial investments, increasing compared to EUR 32 million last June. Then EUR 11.6 million in industrial investments, showing a significant reduction compared to EUR 25.2 million at June 30, 2025, mainly as a result of the completion of the 2024-2025 2-year investment plan aimed at strengthening our highly artisanal production capacity.

And this plan will provide us with the production spaces and premises required to cater for our growth over the next 10 years. The remaining approximately EUR 8 million, almost entirely related to important technology investments. To conclude, characteristic net financial debt on Slide 23 amounted to EUR 225.1 million vis-a-vis EUR 197.2 million last year. The increase is down to the changes in net working capital during the first half of the year, together with the concentration in the first half of the year of the investment plans for 2026, as previously mentioned, and the payment of dividends mainly carried out during the second quarter for a total amount of EUR 73.7 million. Thank you very much for your attention. Brunello, you have the floor.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Well, now let's come to the final 2026 outlook. And I'd like to remind you that we always would like to focus on absolute luxury segment. So what we're going to say pertains to this segment. In light of our first half results, which exceeded our expectations and considering the excellent momentum of our brand, we are raising our year-end estimates, and we expect growth at a constant exchange rate to be between 10% and 11% compared to an initial guidance of 10%. Foreign exchange as of the end of the year, it is expected to be around 1%. But throughout our history as a listed company since 2012, the average impact, both positively and negatively has been approximately 0.5%.

EBIT is expected to improve, reaching around 17%. Investments are expected to be around 6% as all of our production-related investments have now been completed, and this is going to be true for the next 3-year period. Investments in image and communication will remain consistently between 6% and 7% per year. Over the next 2 years, however, we will be presenting the movie in many different countries. However, the full production cost of the film was entirely expensed over the previous 3-year period, and we're very happy with that. Net financial position is improving, accounting for 14% -- well, for 11%, 12% of revenues compared to 14% in 2025.

Let's now move to the outlook for 2027. We provide you with this outlook because we already have collected orders. Anticipating what Luca and Riccardo will share with you soon, we'd like to give you our initial view for 2027. Having almost completed the menswear and womenswear order collection with excellent results and having received the feedback and the collection, both from our valued multi-brand partners as well as from national and international press, we expect another year of healthy growth of around 10%. Well, clearly, assuming no change in our strategy. As you can well understand, for the time being, we are very happy. Now Luca has the floor.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. I welcome you all. As Dario said, we believe we've just closed another very good quarter. Sales growth has remained very consistent throughout the individual months with a well-balanced performance, both across geographies, product categories and for a perfect balance between menswear and womenswear. And these are factors that reinforce our confidence that our growth is solid and sustainable. I can also say that sales in July have continued to follow this very positive trend.

[Interpreted] Luca, pay attention to your pace for the translation.

[Interpreted] As we review our first half results and mindful of all the recent announcements made over the past few days, I will try to be even more concise than usual so as to leave more time for your questions. I'd like to draw your attention on to 3 figures that are particularly meaningful to us. Well, first, retail performance, plus 19% in the first half and plus 18% in the second quarter. Excluding the impact of the Middle East, the 2 quarters were virtually identical, both delivering very strong performances. Second, the outstanding results achieved by our online boutique following the launch of the website and 7% of total revenues.

Again, thanks to Callimacus, we see direct e-commerce business that accounts for approximately 7% of total revenues. And we also say very -- an indirect effect on brick-and-mortar stores with an increasing number of existing and new customers that are coming to the store with pictures drawn from our website. And then we have the performance of China and the Americas, both of which recorded growth of more than 20%.

Let's now get into the details of that. Well, as far as retail is concerned, this season has been truly important for us. The collection had an outstanding quality, as we said earlier this year, the retail network that remains young and dynamic, both in terms of locations and people and which, in our view, continues to offer significant and healthy potential for organic growth. Comparable store sales were very strong. As for new store openings and store expansions, well, they have fully met our preopening expectations. And I'm referring not only to the openings completed early this year, but also to those taking place in 2025, which have had a more meaningful impact on this first half performance.

Among these, I'd like to highlight the Paris and Los Angeles boutiques that have quickly established and have become the most important stores in our network. Then, as a reminder, well, the new website has created a significant value. The new functionalities have made a strong contribution, delivering an experience that is increasingly effective, engaging and aesthetically refined for our visitors. All key performance indicators have been positive. The number of visits continues to increase. The average time spent on the site has nearly doubled. The number of orders has increased and the average order value has increased as well with our digital customers' purchasing behavior becoming increasingly similar to that of customers that are shopping in our physical boutiques.

Let's come to geographies now, China first. As you know, China accounts for approximately 13% to 14% of our total revenues. However, the absolute contribution of our retail business in the region is becoming increasingly material quarter after quarter, reaching levels that are comparable with those of our major geographies. Well, we also believe that this is a particularly important moment for us in China for 3 reasons. First, according -- well, apparel is growing at roughly twice the pace of accessories.

And there is an important article, The Business of Fashion, and study carried out by McKinsey. And in this report, this report highlights that Chinese luxury customers that are increasingly seeking high-quality products that are recognizable only to a small and knowledgeable audience. So they are focusing on high-quality products, but for a small audience, very exclusive.

If we look at ourselves, at our brand, we think that our brand is and remains perhaps more than anywhere else, young, fresh and synonymous with authentic luxury. So we believe that the coming decade will be very important for us in China. We have often spoken about significant opportunities that we see in this market that start materializing in this country.

Our focus continues to be on China. So 2026 is the year of Shanghai with the opening of Casa Cucinelli in September and with the expansion of our boutique at Plaza 66, which is already one of our most important stores in Asia. And in 2027, we will instead strengthen our position in Beijing with the expansion of our China World boutique and another important opening.

Let's now come to America. There are 3 trends. Well, an increase in average spending on luxury, a growing concentration of spending at the very top end of the luxury segment and the emergence of new luxury destination with a broadening out of our footprint. We opened new boutiques in Nashville and Naples, reflecting the trend of the American luxury market becoming increasingly widespread and locally driven.

From a strategic viewpoint, these opportunities are very attractive because it enables us to serve new groups of customers while strengthening our high-end brand positioning and the relationships with our customers. So our boutiques continue to perform very well across North America. Neiman Marcus, Saks and Bergdorf have definitely moved beyond the period of financial uncertainty. With them, we closed a very positive first half, both in terms of our sell-in performance and more importantly, our sell-out performance to end customers.

The second quarter was stronger than the first, supported by a gradual improvement in product availability across the stores and especially thanks to customer loyalty that is very strong across all the 3 department stores. And so we are confident about the central role that these department stores play within the U.S. luxury market. Payments on time, operations smooth. So these are the 3 major highlights, Digital, China and Americas and retail.

So we attach great importance to the performance of our wholesale channel and to the results achieved in Europe. We closed the first half with growth in Europe of 5.3% and 10% in European retail, further confirming the strategic importance and the strength of this region within our business. 2.7% growth for wholesale in the 6-year period, in line with our expectations and in line with our idea of creating value over the long term. And our customers are in good shape. They are modern and fully understand how strongly we believe in the contribution they make to the long-term strength and longevity of our brand. And so they are equally aware of the high standards we expect from them, both in the physical stores and on the digital platforms.

One final important piece of information as far as sales are concerned. So it's a good growth, both value-wise and in terms of volumes. If we focus on the value-wise growth, well, we see that the search for high-quality garments, exclusive garments on the one hand is important and also the recognition of our brand in this high-end segment. When we look at our product offering, there are some categories like menswear and womenswear, tailoring, made-to-measure, outerwear, dresses, couture, knitwear and pants, trousers and skirts, we see that there are important opportunities for the future.

A couple of words on the income statement. As Dario commented on, we are very pleased with the improvement in profitability. Casa di Moda is going through a phase of healthy expansion, managed with great discipline. As you can see, the increase in the first margin outpaced the growth in rent and personnel costs. And so this confirms that gradual investments released the growth in revenues, thus managing costs. So we think our company has become stronger, but at the same time, has remained lean.

Then the foreign exchange impact, 1.5% in the second quarter, and we aim at reaching full neutrality in the second half. We look at the second half with confidence. We said July has been very successful. We are very confident in the product's offering that will be delivered to the stores in the second part of the year. And we also had very positive feedbacks on the fall/winter collections upon presentation. We also have a store opening plan besides Casa Cucinelli and the expansion of the Plaza 66.

We will open [ The Grove ] in Abu Dhabi, and we will expand our Geneva boutique. As for events, well, we will go on with family events, which are a special occasion for us. We will also have important events, 3, one in September. The official opening of the Saint-Honore boutique in Paris, accompanied by the French premiere of the film. In October, Shanghai with the screening of the film following the enthusiastic reception that Brunello received at the Shanghai International Film Festival. And last but not least, in December, Brunello's tribute to the world of cinema in Los Angeles. We will also go to Tokyo in October.

So well, with that, I'd like to say that we really look forward to closing another record year for our company. So record high revenues, but a year which is also rich in value and meaning for our brand. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Riccardo, I will be very brief. I have 3 updates for you. So well, over the past few days, we successfully completed the delivery of our fall/winter '26 collections with outstanding punctuality and the exceptional level of craftsmanship that has always distinguished our work. And this is thanks to the efforts by the creative team, workshops and in-house tailoring workshops and the 400 Italian artisan workshops employing approximately 9,000 people. With them, we have a direct relationship without any intermediaries, and we work with them on a daily basis.

During our daily interactions, we meet them twice a year. And in mid-September, we will once again meet them to share our production plans for 2027. And this takes place during every season. This confirms our production model with a high level of craftsmanship on the one, they have great flexibility and speed. You know how important speed, especially in replenishment. Well, for the replenishment an important item. Second update as far as the industrial investments are concerned, we concluded everything in 2025. We're very happy, and we are extremely pleased with the workplaces that we have created, designed around people and around the quality of their work. These spaces will provide us with the production capacity required for the next decade. And you know that we are particularly pleased to continue receiving job applications for manufacturing workforce. And this confirms that the place of work and a fair consideration are the key elements for blue collars.

Last but not least, a short reflection on the new European legislation, and we are favorable because -- well, the new regulation prohibits companies in the textile industry from destroying unsold garments. We embrace this regulation with great conviction, not so much because it changes the way we operate, but rather because it recognizes a principle that is deeply rooted in our values, that is the idea that a garment has a value that must be preserved. Well, historically, we've always allocated approximately 2%, 3% of our production to donations in support of people in need throughout the world. Building relationships with small organizations around the world, even small organizations. This is very important.

During the COVID pandemic, we did something particularly meaningful and special by donating the unsold products from our boutiques. We launched the Brunello Cucinelli for Humanity project. This initiative continues today and currently accounts for 4% of our garments. In addition, a further 4% to 5% has always been allocated to purchases by our employees and their families to whom we offer a significant discount of the retail price, giving them the opportunity to wear products that they would otherwise not be able to purchase.

And so here, too, we are strongly convinced that our high garment should continue to be experienced, worn and passed down over time. So we're very pleased with this new European regulation, which we see as an important step towards the culture of quality, responsibility, product longevity, values that belong not only to our Casa di Moda, but also to the culture of Italian craftsmanship. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Well, I believe we still have 5 minutes. So at least we have 5 minutes -- 15 minutes for questions. So this Callimacus is very important project for us. We held a press conference the other day and Callimacus is a platform that redefines the digital experiences in the AI era. And we basically signed an important investment agreement from Salesforce in Italy and Europe. It's an important investment for them. But I'd like to read what Marc Benioff said, the Chair and CEO of Salesforce.

Marc Benioff has always believed that technology should elevate humanity. And this belief is at the heart of Callimacus. We like this very much. The team has developed an innovative platform that reimagines through AI, the digital experiences, combining conversational capabilities, business context and real-time personalization to create entirely new ways for companies to engage with their customers. So we are proud to collaborate with Brunello and the Solomei AI team in changing the way for a new -- which is great, in paving the way for a new generation of artificial intelligence-powered experiences. And of course, the transaction falls within the scope of the Italian Golden Power needs to be submitted to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Now to summarize, we believe that our brand is currently experiencing a very positive tempus, a moment of great global momentum. Perhaps we can say that at this particular moment, our brand is truly cool, and this is the way fashion works. We are positioned in true luxury, and you should never, this is important, you should never expect us to introduce entry-level entry-price products. Everything continues to revolve around the single brand, Brunello Cucinelli, no second brand, third brand acquisitions or nothing.

So now I would like to talk about luxury for a minute. When I started this journey 48 years ago and until approximately 25 years ago, the market was traditionally divided into luxury, the #2 upper middle segment, middle segment and lower segment. Then during one of the first meetings of luxury held in Milan about 25 years ago, attended by my esteem, Sergio Loro Piana, a stylish friend who is no longer with us, Pupi Solari, a wonderful owner of the wonderful boutique on Via Monte Napoleone, and another Italian entrepreneur and myself. And the topic was luxury.

At one point, this entrepreneur took the floor and said that he had acquired a knitwear fabric -- factory, sorry, in Umbria produced sweaters at EUR 20, and he defined this as accessible luxury. You see myself and the other attendees, we basically looked at each other a bit puzzled, but that's the way he called it. From that day onwards, the discussion revolves around 3 different categories: absolute luxury, aspirational luxury, accessible luxury, always with this pyramid that is sometimes very questionable.

So to conclude on this extremely important topic, we believe that true luxury is a product that is of exceptional quality, the result of outstanding craftsmanship and exclusive in its distribution. And I believe that the theme of exclusivity is central for the future. Finally, the image of Solomeo is of the utmost importance to us as it embodies our vision of how to live and work. And we hope it conveys a sense of authenticity, simplicity and spirituality, a place company where one can enjoy an experience that is above all deeply human.

You should consider that we have about 14,000, 15,000 visitors every year. And you see I'm busy even on Saturdays and Sundays, I see them strolling through the village. So before concluding, I would like to recall that during our April call, we spoke of the wonderful atmosphere felt throughout Milano Collezioni, shared by buyers and journalists alike. And because there was this desire about these new proposals across many brands fall/winter '26 collections.

Now we all discussed this topic, after this busy week of half year results presentations, we have given us energy and renewed conviction, we have the feeling and we want to share it with you that overall, we are moving towards a positive phase, one that lifts our spirits and gives us fresh momentum. So how do we work? And what about our current situation? Our total focus must be on the products always. And this product must be new, contemporary, modern and youthful. And it needs to have a right balance between price and value while fully acknowledging that we create garments that are costly and at times very costly.

Everything goes out of fashion quickly. It has always been written so in every dictionary, even those dating back to the 1750s. And as you know fully well, we do not believe in evergreen products because even the Navy blazer this season is 1.5 centimeter longer than the previous season, and it is not an evergreen. With this awareness, we work with great focus and equal serenity, knowing that true creativity arises from mutually esteem, respect for others, the courage to listen to differing views. If there is this, we can definitely say that that's where true creativity is born. We can now open the floor for questions. You should also know that we never adopted the work from home or remote working mode because we believe that otherwise, you lose collective creativity.

There is a blurred boundary between private and business and work life and young people do not learn at all. So now we have time for questions.

[Interpreted] Chorus call operator speaking. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from Chiara Battistini, JPMorgan.

[Interpreted] So my first question is on the update of the guidance up to 10%, 11% for the year. Given how the first half performed, does this show a slowdown in the second half of the year? And also given the positive comments in the industry, I was wondering how did you come up with this guidance? And how is the second half of the year going to perform? The second question, on the second quarter performance in Asia because in my calculations, I see a slowdown in growth, 11% without considering the impact of ForEx. It was 18% in the first quarter. I heard the comment on China that is still growing 20%. So can we have some color about this slowdown?

And the third question is a higher-level question about your discount policies, especially on third-party platforms. So I was wondering if you can share with us how you monitor the goods sold at a discount in order to counter excessive discounts.

[Interpreted] So as to the first question, you see there is the war going on. You don't know how things will be going. So we prefer to move this way because every day is different. Luca?

[Interpreted] As for Asia, Chiara, we should consider the effect of the war, and we see no slowdown in the rest of the Asian continent. You should consider that as far as the Middle East is concerned, it gave a positive contribution in the first quarter, and it couldn't do so in the second quarter. But we did see in the second quarter, there was a good progress towards a recovery. Also, favored by a higher spending of the local customers.

As to the platforms, Brunello [indiscernible] it is an old story because you see we have the multi-brands, but maybe what they put in their platform is maybe from EUR 5,000, EUR 3,000 for a big size blazer. What is important is that even if you sell one of our items at a discount, it always ranges very high. So you never sell something for EUR 100, EUR 200. Always a very tiny discount. So the number of pieces at a discount is very scanty. And since we believe the multi-brands are the true guardians of our brands, I will never step back [indiscernible] business strategy because our multi-brands are, generally speaking, 110 years heritage, which means that you see multi-brands are much more long-lived than our retail stores. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Next question by Andrea Randone, Intermonte SIM.

[Interpreted] Brunello, you have given a lot of useful details. I have 2 curiosities. The first one is on the deal with Callimacus. What I'm interested in, have you already envisaged possible improvements for the solution you devise and whether your new partner can also represent a help in adding technology content or if you have any plans in this regard?

The second question, if you can go -- going back to the U.S. strong numbers there. And at group level, you talked about new customers developing an interest in the brand and new cities. If you can give us an idea because you're already quite well positioned, but do you still see room for growth in the coming 12 months?

[Interpreted] So I'll answer your question on Callimacus. You see Callimacus really has been a disruptively positive change, how your approach to our product has changed and the image has changed. It has been a game changer. You see they are #1 in the world, market sales for the website. You see eight people team worked on this website. And so we told, Marc, if you want this website, we can help you doing visual merchandising. But if you can -- with that 1,000 team, people, staff, you can definitely help. So we are pleased because for them it represents the first investment in Italy, quite a significant sizable one in Europe and innovation for the website because the website had been conceived a very similar way for the last few decades.

That's a serious endeavor and also enjoying daily relations with them as we've had this since 2015. Well, this has given us the opportunity to learn a lot. You see Marc would come up to us and say, "What can I buy? I want to shop." And I would say to Francesco Bottigliero, the person in charge of Callimacus, we basically suggest a few things that he bought and was successful businesses. And so he sometimes he comes for us to ask for advice.

[Interpreted] So thank you for your question, Luca speaking, because this really gives us an idea to reiterate a concept. There is no mature market for us. We are not too widely distributed. This is important. I think that America is the greatest example of this because it is a market historically very important for us, and we keep growing in a very continuous manner. They very much appreciate the high rate of craftmanship because always you see in knitwear, we have couture knitwear, but on average, it's EUR 15,000 for a retail item. So it means that it entails quality, style and then there is a very undivided attention to where you manufacture your goods, how you behave in your stores. And for us, Andrea is an important thing. So we see a bright future ahead of us. Of course, we had to -- you see the best future in the next 3, 5 years is China. We currently have 13.5%. We have just a handful of schools. So there is room for growth there. As you know, I always say you should speak slowly, but I did not.

[Interpreted] Next question from the English conference, Maria Meita, Bernstein, please.

I have 2. First is a follow-up from the previous question on the Americas. I was wondering if you could break down the growth coming from existing compared to new customers in the first half of the year versus last year? And then second, obviously, the movie has now been made available across more geographies. Have you or your wholesale partners seen any immediate impact on brand momentum or visibility in the sort of geographies where the movie was already launched? Or is it more of a long-term umbrella effect for the brand?

[Interpreted] Maria, let me start from the movie. Well, we won the first Golden Globe, and fortunately, I had to travel the world. But it seems as if -- well, in Shanghai it went well, abd Canada, America, well, the success is even higher than we expected because clearly -- well, the movie describes a very important topics, the topic of work, of respect and also the topic of the origins and poverty as well. So the movie has given us a lot of advantages.

And as we have said earlier, well, the costs have been already paid across the past 3 years and so we will benefit from it in the following 3 years. As for customers, we are at about 400,000, 500,000 customers, very few. And we have a lot of younger customers, a lot of 40-year-old men and women. So people who want to dress well and know very important personalities. We do not sponsor anyone. They are just friends buying our garments. So we are very happy with that development. Well, of course, I do not share this idea of quiet luxury. It's not quiet at all because you have to combine, mix and match colors in different places. So we are very happy. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions. There is a question from the English conference, Natasha Bonnet, Morgan Stanley, please.

Congratulations on the great set of results. The first is regarding your -- for H1, Q2 results. Can you quantify the spacing contribution versus like-for-like in the first half? And then just keep us -- maybe give us an update on your store opening plans for the second half and next year. I believe you're converting 5 Neiman Marcus stores to retail in the second half. And then my second question would be, please, if you could give us some color on order books and what your wholesale guidance is for this year and next.

Natasha go ahead with your questions again, in English because we cannot hear the translation. So go ahead with the English questions. Can you repeat the questions, please?

Sure. I was asking if management could quantify the spacing contribution in the first half versus like-for-likes and then update us on the store opening plans for the second half of this year and next year. And I believe they are converting 5 Neiman Marcus stores into retail in the second half of this year. And then my second question was asking about to have some color on order books and what the wholesale guidance is for this year and 2027, please?

[Interpreted] The next question from the Italian conference,Paolo Carboni, Equita.

[Interpreted] I also would like to ask a question. As for the wholesale channel, that shows a significant gap compared to retail also like-for-like. So considering the more rigid approach that you have discounts and the management of unsold garment, this leads to a decrease in the channel. I was wondering where we are in terms of target and when can we expect this wholesale channel to grow again mid-to-single digit?

[Interpreted] Well, the spring/summer collection is growing very significant. However, most importantly, Paola, the judgment of the collection by them is very important because the fact act of knowing that the collection has been judged as extremely fascinating means that in our stores from January 1 to June 30, we will be selling beautiful collections. And knowing that we are going to sell beautiful collections is very important and then we never know what is going to happen, Paola. So that's the true judgment of our collections.

Well, for the winter collection, we asked for paying a bit more attention to the network. Although, again, we don't think you will find garments of ours for EUR 200 or EUR 300 on the net. So we are very happy. But as I said earlier, our multi-brand stores, they have an average age exceeding 100 years. And I believe our brands will not survive 100 years. I don't know, Paola, if I've been exhausted.

[Interpreted] Yes. A follow-up question. Compared to the total growth guidance of 10%, 11% at constant exchange rates, so how do you see the wholesale channel by the end of the year? And can you give us more details on the conversion plans for spaces?

[Interpreted] No, there are no such processes. We just ask that, well, it's better to buy 1% less being on the network and also the guidance that we provided is consistent. So we cannot hide the fact that things are going very well for us, but what we should not forget that there is another country at all. So we have to be sincere and serene and working in a certain manner.

[Interpreted] Next question from the English conference, Charles-Louis Scotti, Kepler Cheuvreux, please.

Do you hear me? Because it seems that there is some...

[Foreign Language].

Three's questions for me, please. The first one, I'm sorry in advance, but I will focus on the region that is seeing the slowest growth. But over the past few quarters, Europe seems to have been lagging behind the U.S. and Asia. Could you confirm that this is purely due to the wholesale business and that DTC trends are actually just as strong in Europe as they are in the U.S. and Asia?

My second question is on margins. The margin improved significantly in the first half. Can we extrapolate the 50 bps improvement to the full year? And if I remember correctly, you had also booked EUR 8 million provision related to tax last year. What is the current status of that provision? And what should we expect in terms of its impact on the H2 '26 margins? And finally, regarding leverage, could you provide a bit more detail on the pace of the expected debt reduction embedded in your budget? And how quickly do you expect the net debt to decline over the coming years?

Thanks a lot, Charles. Starting by Europe, we are, as I told you before, extremely confident about the health of our business in Europe. We are growing retail plus 10%, and we consider a very good achievement. Considering that we have a predominant part of the European demand that is related to domestic customers. And in any case, we had in the first semester, a positive add-on brought by the international tourism. Regarding the provision for tax, we posted EUR 8 million at the end of '25 and is equivalent to the debt that we left. So no impact on the second part of the year. Regarding the debt...

[Interpreted] Well, clearly, we've concluded we've closed the big industrial investments for 10, 12 years. So in the next 5 to 10 years, we are expected to collect money because in the past few years, we also invested 9% to 10% per year. But 6% doesn't mean that we're not going to invest that much. So it's again quite a good amount, but we no longer have the industrial investments. And that's why we think and expect the following 5 years to be years of collection. So that is going to decrease by nature.

[Operator Instructions] Next question, Melania Grippo, BNP Paribas.

[Interpreted] I have just one question. So as I understood, the space has contributed to the performance of retail in the first half of the year. What about the second half of the year? Can we expect a similar -- the space might count in the light of the new openings?

[Interpreted] I think we have an opening plan that is pretty balanced. We had a contribution from new openings in this first half that was higher than expected. And of course, now we are going towards a half where we believe that we have a great balance between organic growth and the rest. Yes, you see the opening strategy is always the same. 2, 3 stores a year, 3, 4 expansions, that's it. We would like to try and survive for the next 100 years, always based here in the Valley. I don't know whether we will achieve that, but we do plan for the longest of times because we do not believe in extreme speed. And we want to safeguard and preserve exclusivity because for us, that's what really is the key feature of that. Thank you, Melania.

So have a nice holiday for those of you who are going on holiday, we are very pleased that we had at this call at this time of the year. I am very, very, very delighted with the reporting as a system in general in our industry. Very, very pleased because truth told I am very pleased. You can tell that there is a recovery. There is positivity that you see there was [indiscernible] there was also in the reporting season results of first half results in the market. Well, yes, there's risk and there's concerns but there's not much we can do. But when there is a positive vibe in the market, in the company, there is an interesting creativity. So thanks again and enjoy your holidays. Thank you. Have a nice evening. Goodbye.

[Interpreted] Chorus Call operator speaking. The conference call has ended. You can now disconnect your phones.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good evening, and welcome to the presentation of the first quarter 2026 revenues of the Maison Brunello Cucinelli. Speakers will be Brunello Cucinelli, Executive Chairman and Creative Director; Luca Lisandroni, CEO; Riccardo Stefanelli, CEO; Dario Pipitone, CFO; Moreno Ciarapica, Co-CFO Senior; and Pietro Arnaboldi, Investor Relations and Corporate Planning Director. [Operator Instructions]

Now I would like to hand over to Brunello Cucinelli.

Good evening. Welcome back, as usual, journalists, analysts, investors and dear friends. This is the second call of the year, but it is actually the first to discuss 2026 on the occasion of the Q1 revenue figures. We believe it is a very important call because we -- of the period we are living through. This is why we would define the scope as extremely important. All of us are present, 10 of us, as usual, and the call will proceed as follows. I will read out the key figures, then Luca will provide you with a careful global overview of the markets. Then I will resume sharing our forecast for 2026 in detail and also some visibility on 2027. Then together with Riccardo, we will summarize the following investments in artisanal production capacity, our elasticity, flexibility and reversibility that was already tested in 2020 during the pandemic and also in 2021 when we resumed our business and activities following the pandemic. We will then focus on the new e-commerce platform built with artificial intelligence in which we place great confidence, especially now as was the case in 2020.

Let me read out the figures. Excellent results with growth of 14% at constant exchange rates and total revenue of EUR 369 million, plus 8.1% at current exchange rate. Outstanding performance of the retail channel, up 20.1% at constant exchange rates, and very positive contribution from the wholesale channel, up 4.3% at constant exchange rates.

Very favorable trends across all geographies. Constant exchange rate growth of 20.3% in the Americas, 4.4% in Europe, 17.8% in Asia. Double-digit retail growth across all 3 continents.

Order intake for the fall/winter 2026 men's and women's collections is of the highest quality, with very positive feedback from the trade press and also the wholesale clients. Excellent contribution from a new e-commerce site based on the artificial intelligence called Callimacus, which has already proven its ability to greatly increase client interaction through personalized custom-made experiences and above all, it has attracted attention from major tech companies from the Silicon Valley.

The quarterly results with consistent growth in the first 3 months of the year, excellent sell-out of the spring/summer collection that are currently on the shelves, you should know that if your inventory is obsolete, that mirrors the goods you have in the stores. Also, the order intake for the fall/winter collections, described by trade press and major global buyers as perhaps the most beautiful ever, while all of the above will allow us to look at the entire 2026 year with confidence.

These highly positive elements, together with a strong and prestigious global brand image and positioning in the most exclusive luxury segment, they allow us to confirm expected growth of 10% at constant exchange rates for 2026.

And strongly believing in our business model, we also anticipate revenue growth of around 10% for 2027, too. This is my comment.

The first quarter of 2026 ended with -- sorry, with a 14% increase in revenues, a result we may confidently regard as excellent. On a global level, the brand's elevated image positioned within the most exclusive tier of luxury remains this image very robust, and we believe it is enjoying the finest moment in our history.

The consistency and identity of our style, our visual merchandising and the lifestyle we so ardently seek to express, they appear to us, both vigorous and dynamic, while their guiding principles remain steadfast over time, great creativity, contemporary products, craftsmanship, manual skills and exclusivity, that's important.

We are confident that the prestigious accolades received in 2025 for our stylistic identity together with the release of the movie throughout 2026 will continue to fuel interest, curiosity and allure around our Maison. At this particular juncture for humanity, we have drawn upon what we learned back in 2020 during the pandemic and subsequently put into practice, namely the importance of clarity in the fundamental principles of our enterprise, the necessity for all our decisions to be reversible, elastic and flexible, culturally as well on an almost daily basis.

And finally, the need for great caution in patients without thereby relinquishing our rightful ambition. This is what we asked of all our colleagues during the customary quarterly internal assembly that we held on March 2.

And we want to put into practice the teaching of Thomas More, who said, oh my God, help me to accept what I cannot change, and help me to change what I can. In light of the above as well as these, of the strong appreciation garnered by the fall/winter 2026 collections, described by international trade press and leading global buyers as the most beautiful in our history, we look to the current year with particular confidence, anticipating revenue growth of around 10%, with a similar outlook for 2027.

Now Luca, you can now give us a global overview.

Good evening, Brunello, and good evening, everybody. I would start commenting our results for this quarter that are particularly strong, slightly exceeding our expectations and showing further acceleration compared with the second half of 2025, which we had already regarded as excellent. The 20% growth in the retail channel represents the most significant elements of these results, and I would begin my review precisely here. We view this growth to be meaningful and particularly robust for a number of reasons. First, once again, strong geographical balance. As Brunello mentioned, we are growing double-digit in the retail across all 3 continents.

The second element is an excellent balance between organic and nonorganic growth. The overall performance of existing stores remains very healthy and consistent, confirming our belief that there is -- that we have already mentioned in several occasions that there is still considerable potential within these locations, thanks to the youth and freshness of our network. At the same time, new openings and expansions we have delivered, while they have translated into the expected contribution, enabling us to continuously enhance the quality of our network while safeguarding the evolution of our profit and loss account. We have identified growth opportunities in a non-dilutive manner. When we take a look at the contribution of nonorganic growth in the first quarter, as you might remember, there is a marginal contribution offered by the 3 openings at the start of the year, Boca Raton, 1 in China and Naples, they are middle sized and they are in premium new locations. But the greatest contribution was -- comes from the 2025 openings that, as you might remember, were all concentrated in the second half of the year.

The third remark I'd like to make is the virtuous balance between volume and value growth. Sales volumes are increasing in step with the growth in number of end customers while the average selling price is also rising, supported by a highly positive sales mix. For us, this is a very encouraging sign that talks about the quality of our creative offering and the positioning of the brand. This has been the case for a few years, from Brunello comments.

Then fourth, perfect gender parity. In this quarter 2, revenues shows gender parity, 50% men and 50% women. And we consider this a very distinctive feature of our brand.

The last remark regards the time dimension. We are expanding our sequence of double-digit retail growth quarters. And this shows consistency of our performance and continuity of our performance even across different market environments. Within the quarter, it is worth noting that March remained in line with the growth of the previous 2 months, even after the outbreak of the war.

Only the Middle East saw some impact, but this was offset during the month by the overperformance of other regions and also the first 2 months in the same region in the Middle East. So the Middle East accounts for approximately 5% of our revenues, both by geography and by customer nationality. The region shows a good balance between retail and wholesale, with retail focused concentrated in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the rest is managed through wholesale agreements. What is even more important is that the Middle East contributes positively to growth in the first quarter. Thanks to the excellent start in the first 2 months of the year. In March, however, store traffic in the area fell by more than 50%, although it is important to highlight that all stores remain open and fully operational. And we confirmed their salaries fully.

Let us now turn to wholesale. There is a slight growth at constant exchange rates there, very good, which we consider very positive and fully in line with our expectations for the channel for the full year. Spring/summer deliveries were once again perfectly on time and complete, enabling our multi-brand clients to begin the season with full assortments and to achieve very encouraging sell-out results. As you know, as we said last time, we have asked all our multi-brand partners to pay increasing attention to their online conduct while leaving them free to receive and order quantities consistent with this discipline.

In talking about wholesale, it is always useful to distinguish between specialty stores and department stores. Specialty stores represent one of the strongest pillars of our business in our distribution and revenues and they are in excellent health, highly attentive to research, very important for the whole industry, and they are busy trying to understand this particularly favorable moment in style. Yes, it's 30% wholesale and 70% retail, Brunello points out.

In times of international tension, the role of specialty stores becomes even more significant, thanks to their close physical proximity to customers and the strong relationship of trust they maintain.

Department stores. Let's look at Saks, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. As we said, we've been back to full operations since the end of January, and this is shown by our results. For our brands, sales to end customers in the first quarter are higher than in the same period last year in 2025. And this is true both for concessions and for wholesale products and both for menswear and womenswear, and payments have been extremely punctual.

Let us now look at geographies. As you've seen, the Americas and China, both in excellent health, are driving overall growth. These 2 markets increasingly appear as systems that are somewhat insulated from the rest of the world. They're strong because of their size of domestic demand. And on the other side, they are shielded by physical distance from the Middle Eastern war. And they are also protected by a relatively moderate media coverage of the Middle Eastern conflict.

From a trend perspective, China and Americas are experiencing the same phase of demand elevation. And actually, the average selling price in these regions is rising more rapidly than in other parts of the world, reflecting a strong desire for uniqueness in special garments.

In China, for us, sales are concentrated exclusively in major cities, with Hong Kong once again becoming a very strong hub of attraction. In the Americas, our sales performance is also excellent across all major cities. We're achieving double-digit growth in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, and the main resort locations such as Aspen, while overall growth is strongly supported by the broad depletion of demand across the whole national territory, which has revealed new opportunities even beyond major cities and leading resorts.

Europe. Results in Europe are in line with our expectations. We anticipated wholesale to be broadly in line with last year, and we're very pleased with retail growth of 10%. The noncomparable effect is now much more limited in Europe versus other regions. And we note the excellent start of the new store in Rue Saint-Honore in Paris, which we opened last November. The performance of comparable stores across the various European markets in this first quarter is, therefore, very solid.

So we can conclude that globally, the performance of the physical business is excellent, as is the performance of the digital channel. Our online boutique is growing rapidly this first quarter, strengthened by the new features that Brunello mentioned, and we are going to talk about that later, too. They are based on our Callimacus artificial intelligence. And this has immediately led to a significantly longer session times, which means greater opportunities for sales and communication as well as, in our view, a more elevated and distinctive image.

Also increasingly satisfactory and productive with our partnership with LuxExperience and all its platforms, Mytheresa, NET-A-PORTER and MR PORTER, we're achieving double-digit sales growth alongside higher sell-out percentages.

And these excellent results show very close collaboration and strong discipline. We firmly believe that 2027 is very successful year for the digital channel. We actually see that customers are becoming more and more confident with digital challenges, and we're talking about true luxury customers. And the digital experience is very agile and nimble by its very nature, which is a big advantage in this moment in time.

So a detailed analysis by geography, channel and growth driver provides consistent positive and mutually reinforcing evidence of a business in excellent health, supported by the clear statistic identity, strong brand appeal, product strength, clarity of positioning and rigor in the strategic development we are pursuing.

Then when moving from actual data to forecast, then necessarily, we must take into account the contextual analysis. And we see this as 3 concentric circles, our fashion health within our sector, within our industry and in the global market. So if we look at this shape, we feel the company is in very good shape. We have resources, initiatives, projects and commercial investments in place to support the expected sales for the upcoming periods.

We also believe the industry is doing well, certainly better than last year. We have closed fashion weeks with a very positive atmosphere. We felt a very good environment with a strong perception of new ideas, and this is true for both Milan and Paris. We noticed renewed energy and a great focus on product. And in our view, this will prove decisive in the months ahead.

However, global markets are factoring in the current high level of international tension, outlining a more challenging environment than initially expected. But we are no strangers to uncertainty, and we firmly believe more and more that in uncertain times, it becomes even more important to maintain clarity of purpose, while exercising daily flexibility and execution without giving into -- or giving up our ambitions.

As we always do in such sensitive, delicate moments, we have gathered, and we can confirm today our guidance of expected revenue growth of about -- of around 10% for 2026 and 2027, maintaining both realistic and confident attitude. Today, we're experiencing the welcome sense of a very natural, entirely unforced growth, which seems to broaden our horizon and make the opportunities ahead even clearer and more tangible.

So I'll stop here. Of course, if you have questions, we'll be happy to go deeper into this.

Very good. This is Brunello speaking. So following Luca's comments, the forecast for 2026 is revenue growth around 10%, EBIT slightly improving, investments around 6% because you know that industrial investments have been completed, net financial position improving, and this with a healthy and excellent visibility.

And we expect the same to be true for 2027. We would like to virtually change nothing, follow the same strategies as in 2026. So why are we providing estimate and sharing them with you? This is a typical problem we first encountered in 2020. So we do share our estimates with you at very unusual moments. It would be much more cautious not to do so. Many of you analysts told us we were bold in doing so back in 2022. But first of all, it's part of our culture, company culture. And also, we have close connections with the local institutions and authorities like the mayor, the provincial house and so on. And everybody is asking us how are things going. And it's hard for us to say we cannot answer because we are a public company.

So just like we did in 2020, we are trying to give you an idea. And then if changes occur, we'll update you immediately. So internally, we work with projects every day. And this is what we want to convey to you. But we are ready to adjust them on a daily basis according to events in case it's necessary.

So let's go on with some 3-year considerations. We consider 2026, '27 and '28 as an overall period, which belongs to the 2024/2028 plan, which we defined as the triennium of healthy harvest because in 2024 and '25, we have completed our investments in our production facilities, which we are confident with guaranteed high-quality production for the next 10 to 15 years. And now this will be the trend of the harvest. 2028 will mark the 50th birthday our company, and we want to get there with peace of mind.

Our facilities allow us to have flexibility, speed elasticity, reversibility, which is really, really important, and we will discuss it further with Riccardo.

So why do we change our estimates? Well, first of all, Q1 performance reflects the value of the spring/summer collection, which was just as particularly beautiful and creative last September. And we are looking -- increasingly looking for special, beautiful, wearable, unique garments with great creativity and exclusivity. And this is certainly something we noticed for both men and women. So for men's, it's more used and acceptable to wear the same things 2 or 3 seasons in a row, whereas women tend to change more frequently.

My second comment is that the fall/winter '26 collection entering stores in July, we received extremely favorable feedback during recent women's fashion weeks, both in Milan and Paris. They were rated as excellent by the international press and by the clients who said they are maybe the most beautiful ever. And as you know, multi-brand clients are the players that are out there and quickly understand the state of health of each brand because they actually see hundreds of collections every season before everybody else does. And this gives us strength.

Something else that Luca hinted to is that during the latest February/March fashion shows, we actually felt completely fresh energy, and then the war broke, and this is a different story. But both in Paris and Milan, there was a lot of energy around the brand, around the luxury industry. We have been waiting for that for perhaps 3 years. And this new energy is something we still breathe when talking to the press. The press is definitely able to anticipate the times we are going through.

Now fourth point, in our stores, and this is really atmosphere, it is really important. The atmosphere blends home and shop, which is what we wanted. We have 10 Casa Cucinelli and we do events everywhere. So we -- even in other stores, we have little buys. We actually have very nice sales associates. They're not insisting. They have a lot of taste. They have beautiful lifestyles. So as we speak, we consider our boutiques to be very contemporary and beautiful just like our showrooms because the showrooms where we present collections, well, if they look old, they have a bad impact on collections, too. We want the Casa Cucinelli to be our ambassadors. The last one, beautiful one will open in Shanghai, and we will have this family-like event with maybe 100 to 120 guests.

This year is also going to be very important for the brand. Next week, we are going to travel to New York to present the movie. So we'll start in New York and then we'll travel around Europe and Asia and we'll complete this trip in the Middle East in December, hopefully.

So these are the main reasons why we confirm our estimates, even though there's a war, painful and quite unexpected one, it's difficult to accept it for our modern times. But for me, I'm a lover of history, we know that war is part of our story all the time.

So in summary, we believe the brand is experiencing a strong positive momentum globally for many reasons, including design, identity and creativity, craftsmanship, image, sustainability, the ways and places of the work and the value of Solomeo. These are very important tenets for us. And above all, there's a lot of research behind our product and great exclusivity even online. So we discussed it all the time. We believe that also in communication, we actually need to be very exclusive on the communication front as well.

Our clients are [ 450,000 to 500 ] people globally, so they're not so many in terms of amount. And we may conclude saying that today, the brand is pretty cool. We can actually say it ourselves. Brands may be either very cool or not cool at all.

So Riccardo, please give us an idea of elasticity and flexibility and so on. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. I would like to share with you, as I usually do, some reflections on our production structure, which we believe is one of the most distinctive and solid elements of our fashion house. So as you know, alongside actually in Solomeo, which has doubled in size over the past 2 years, in also 2025, and besides, alongside our high-quality tailoring workshops dedicated to men's and women's outerwear in Carrara, Gubbio, and Penne, you know already. Well, besides, alongside all that, we can rely on the supply chain made up of 400 small artisan enterprises with which maintain a direct, never intermediated relationship. And this does not mean that we want to pass any judgment on the platforms and all those who use them. This is our culture.

And by the way, in our region, Umbria, we have 70% of these small workshops, and the others are located in Marche, Tuscany and Veneto. So currently, they have 8,700 people, more than 8,400 in 2025. And the average age is what we like is that the owners are 52 and the employees on average are 44 years old. So the generation handover has already happened.

And as we often say, it is a very simple straightforward model. This craftmanship requires hands. So if we want to maintain this top-notch quality, we need to understand which hands will probably work here in the future. And we believe that in this day and age, nurturing this manual skill culture is one of the most contemporary approach that casa di moda might adopt.

And if there is a distinctive element of our production chain is flexibility. As Brunello was saying, our stress test was in 2020 and the following years. In 2020, in particular, we found ourselves working in the context of great uncertainty. The same month in March, where the traditional seasonal planning became, in effect, weekly planning and actually, daily planning. And I clearly remember how week after week, we adjusted production batches, we transferred skills from one contractor to another. And at times, we even slowed production, focusing more on research and creativity. And then we resumed it and then we also changed our holidays.

So back then, we had 2 very clear objectives. On the one hand, to ensure continuity of work for our artisans. And on the other hand, we had to protect the company at the time when market visibility was extremely limited.

What we find particularly interesting is what happened immediately afterwards in the following 2 years. Well, we experienced the opposite situation, the market demand exceeding our expectations and which we have to meet with great speed, thanks to our artisanal subcontractors. Even in that case, our supply chain demonstrated the very same capability, but in the opposite sense to adapt, restart and return to growth while maintaining consistently the very same quality.

So once again, we believe that between 2020 and 2023, we underwent a true structural test, a stress test and another important element that we do not mention very often is one of the bottlenecks of all the supply chains are raw materials.

You see, raw materials in this regard, we believe we are pretty robust and solid, thanks to 2 things. First things first is our relationship with strategic partners such as Cariaggi, our main cashmere supplier, in which we are shareholders alongside Chanel, with whom we also plan inventory levels. Here, of course, we are speaking of raw materials for periods of 12, 14 months in advance.

And the second element is our relationship with the most important Italian suppliers of raw materials, with whom over the years we have built the same type of relationship with our contractors, direct, specialized across different product categories, stable, based on trust, but also on the same culture, productive culture. With them, we do not just research new materials or sell easy proposal, but we also plan purchases well in advance.

I'd like to sum up by saying that we have a wide-ranging network, but it's very cohesive, at the same time, built some people in direct relationship. We have a great capacity for adaptation. So flexibility, elasticity demonstrated the most complex moments and a complete supply chain, which includes raw materials as well as manufacturing. So we are tackling this moment with confidence.

So now a couple of minutes on e-commerce and then discussion. So I believe that e-commerce is a great tool for luxury, especially for brand image. But before moving on, Michael Kliger, the CEO of Mytheresa, now LuxExperience, well, perhaps the very best luxury multi-brand online, he said something very interesting. E-commerce has ceased to be a place of convenience, of good price, becoming a place of service, novelty and experience. I see new interest because it is the most flexible commercial tool that exists.

But I really have found many interesting things here. About e-commerce, we worked on Callimacus, and many contacted us to pay their congratulations. So we enjoy a great relationship with the Silicon Valley people. Someone from the Silicon Valley actually saw in this new e-commerce, a great invention that might indicate a new path in designing and realizing websites in this as well as in other sectors.

And I'd like to now share with you a comment by Somesh Dash, partner at IVP, one of the major investments in Anthropic, who said the following. And this is verbatim. This is exactly the innovation needed to renew how websites are designed and function. It is a beautiful idea that could point everyone to new ways of making digital sites and experiences more engaging and therefore, more successful. We like this very much. This e-commerce, it's an important resource for our online dialog with customers. We believe new creative digital approaches, well, hopefully a bit unconventional, while they can attract clients' attention, they can encourage them to spend more time on our website discovering collections in an engaging way.

As Luca was saying before, early numbers are significantly higher than traditional e-commerce, indicating strong visitor interest in interacting with this new online experience.

Visitors tend to spend over 10 minutes on the website, double -- about double than what was before. They view 20% more products on average. So it's a very significant figure there. And of course, this is a novelty, so it's very appealing. So we are present in the U.S., Italy and in April 30, all over the world. We'd like to say that there are 2 companies that are among the most important worldwide with whom we are discussing possible developments. They have shown a tangible interest. So it is something really serious because it's a new kind of tool.

So as it happened, both in 2020, it is a very special time for mankind. We do not really know where everything is going to, so we have to be hopeful.

So at the beginning of March, during the classic quarterly meeting with all connected, we spoke about the outbreak of the Gulf War. But Moreno and I, we are the senior members, we reflected that every 6, 7 years, something happens worldwide. Let's start from 2001, the Twin Towers, followed in 2008 by the banks' crash. Then 2015, the Greek debt. Then 2020, the pandemic. 2026, Gulf war. As you can see, there's a pattern there every 5, 6 years. Luckily enough, this happens to us at a very favorable state situation for our brand. So we believe that it could be slightly less difficult for us. But we must be ready to change plans quickly, even daily.

Therefore -- so what we said, we decided to follow the teachings of Thomas More, oh my God, help me accept what we cannot change. Help me change what we can change. So we are retracing the early 2020 path during the pandemic. We held this Board meeting where we spoke about this. We want to talk and focus on business only. And we don't want to beat anybody else who wants to offer other different proposals. We want to focus on our business.

But at the same time, we -- since that we have more time because we meet less people, not directly linked to business, we must be more creative, innovative, kind, open to listening, extremely attentive to every single detail because this can make the difference. And if the difference amounts to 2%, 3%, you might be able to win over a customer, a loyal one. This is the way we are working nowadays. So please do not think that we underestimated and that we are taking it lightheartedly, but we really wanted to focus on how we are approaching the situation.

And now let's open to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] First question by Andrea Randone, Intermonte.

I have 3 questions for you. The first one, in your press release, too, you mentioned a significant number of new clients in America. Can you perhaps give us a bit more color on our client base. We know it's very loyal. But if you can tell us how you see an expansion of these numbers?

Second question on store openings for the -- in the retail network. Last year, it all happened in the second half of the year. This year, already in the first quarter, you started opening stores. So what are your plans for the year in this regard?

And the last question I'd like to ask, important question, although a bit painstaking, you said it was 6% negative exchange rate in the first quarter. You gave an indication of a guideline of 2% negative in the year. If this guideline is still valid?

Well, we are not wizard and we don't have crystal ball. Andrea, I just wanted to point out that you are always the first one asking questions, so you win a cup, you win a prize here. So as far as new customers are concerned, the brand is cool. So we have many young customers, both genders who approach the brand. And this is very important to us. It's very interesting that the average age is 35 to 45.

As far as openings are concerned, Luca will tell you more. But Brunello still, until yesterday, we had -- we could have said that the dollar was going -- was very high. And if it had been yesterday, we could have said that we would close the year between 1, 1.5 or 2. One thing is important, and that is the average. Since when we went public in 2012, it was 0.3. Perhaps in some years, it just swings a little bit, but this is the average. We keep working, obviously for -- in the second half of the year. And for the actual, that's exactly what we were expecting Luca's commenting, because we knew that, that was the exchange rate until March.

As far as the network is concerned, no change in strategy. The timing of the openings is very much influenced by when we find prime locations. So it could be the first quarter, second quarter, also depending on when these opportunities actually happen. So we opened the 3 stores. We envisage that in the second quarter, we would open an important store in Vancouver in Oak Ridge, and then towards the end of the year at Abu Dhabi and Mexico City, between the end of this year and the start of next year. As usual, expansions play an important role this year.

In the third quarter, we will expand the Geneva store, the Toronto store and once again, saddling this year and the next one, the expansion of the Plaza 66 in Shanghai. Casa Cucinelli, as Brunello already mentioned, we are working actively on the location, and we believe that we can be ready for August.

Yes, Brunello is saying, as for the openings, perhaps if we manage to find the right location, we might change the timing, but the strategy is always the same. But the brand is experienced going through a good patch. And the collection is first thing that matters more than anything else. Luca?

And as we were seeing in the past call, it's a great momentum for our brands.

Next question by Chiara Battistini, JPMorgan.

The first question, in the 20% direct-to-customer growth, can you give us the split between volumes and the mix? You spoke about this mix that supports growth.

The second question linked to this strong performance in DTC. In terms of volumes and inventories, are you happy with the spring/summer inventory or given the flexibility in your supply chain, does this help you meet the accelerated demand?

And my last question is, if you can provide an update on the Saks situation. How -- whether the business has resumed now? And what are your expectations to this account for this year?

Luca?

I'll start from the last question, Saks. Things are going according to plan. Revenues is on the rise. We expect a good year with over 3 Saks, Bergdorf and Neiman Marcus. We planned important expansions within Bergdorf for both men's and women's. And we consider the results of the first quarter to be very important because it really proves the loyalty of many American customers to these luxury brands.

And as I was saying from the financial point of view, we receive -- we have been paid on time. We believe that, as Brunello said, the Saks affair was only limited to 2025 and it had only to do with the financial situation. That is still an opportunity for our company.

Retail performance. There's a great balance between volume-based and value-based growth. This is something we are always pleased about. We like the fact that even if the price goes up, the goods are sold because there is this desire to pursue the creativity of the brand, and this is the nature of our brand.

And on the other hand, we like volumes to grow and also the number of customers because this conveys the idea of the company that can look ahead to a bright future.

Inventory, Brunello speaking. As Luca was saying, customers are always seeking out very special things, and we are pleased with that. Inventory, we think it is modern, as we were saying before, because obsolete inventory mirrors obsolete stores.

Production, as Riccardo mentioned, everything is going well there, but we are ready, should anything happen. We are ready to adjust and it could happen overnight as it happened back in 2020. We have basically reapplied all the strategies that we have in 2020. You might say it was bigger in 2020. Well, we are prepared. We laid the foundation, prepared the ground. If it turns out better and if the truce holds, then it will -- we will be fine, but we prepare for the worst.

Next question will be asked by Natasha Bonnet of Morgan Stanley.

Congratulations on the really great set of results. My first one would be -- and this might be painstaking a little bit, I'm sorry, but any change in trends you've seen so far in April versus Q1, especially the exit rate from March?

And my second question would just be on the performance of the Middle East, if you could give us a bit more color. I think you said traffic in stores was down 50% in the month of March. Was that for the full month? And how were sales impacted in a similar level? And have you seen that evolve lately?

And then my last question would be on Saks. I know you had previously mentioned you were planning on converting 5 Neiman Marcus doors from wholesale to concession. Is that still a plan for this year?

Okay. Luca will start the answer and then Brunello will continue.

Okay. Luca speaking. For Saks, the plan is the same. Five locations have been identified for conversion during the year. And for the Middle East, yes, we confirmed that during the month of March, traffic decreased by 50%, 5-0. And as we said, the Middle East accounted for 5% of our revenues, both in terms of geography and nationality. So that means that the Middle East exports demand towards Europe as much as it receives demand from other countries.

Brunello, can you discuss trends?

As far as style trends, people look for quality more and more. We do knitwear, which we call couture knitwear. It takes capable hands. We need our people to be prepared, to be ready. Everything works well. Schools and academies work well. Something which is important is we have 25,000 people applying for jobs with us every year and nearly 4,000 of these people want to be working in production. And so they know that they have good salaries, good workplaces. But also, they know we're looking for more special things by the time. And also the fall/winter collection, just like the spring/summer collection, has got nothing basic at all. So at this time, as we've seen in the fashion shows in February, March, products are elegant, sophisticated, expensive, chic, very feminine. So Winter fashion seems to be going among these trends all the time.

For spring/summer, we have seen our friends at Chanel that presented very beautiful things and their stores are full of people. So it's a special and very beautiful time for fashion. There's a lot of innovation. People want very special products. Not necessarily unwearable, that's for sure, but pretty special.

Yes, comfort, for instance, is one of the specific demands of the recent fashion trends. But should we summarize one of the main new trends is exclusivity, uniqueness, quality and elegance and feminineness. So this would be the summary of the fashion trends we have seen in the last few weeks. So this is it for fashion.

So you'd find it pretty, let's say, energetic for fall/winter. We have beautiful collections for winter and hopefully, the famous geopolitical situation will allow us to play out at best. And as far as the beginning of April, we have recorded no significant changes versus March. Oh yes, I was forgetting about April. April is following along the same trend as March.

Next question will be asked by Chris Huang of UBS.

It's Chris from UBS. I have 3, if I may. The first one on the wholesale order book. I think in the press release, you mentioned that you only resumed shipment with Saks from mid-January. So could you give us some visibility on what to expect for Q2 in the wholesale channel? Is something similar to Q1 a reasonable level?

Secondly, I want to ask about the Americas DTC. I think you highlighted in the press release that the U.S. DTC channel continues to accelerate sequentially. Could you maybe talk about the underlying drivers here? And are you in any concern about any potential impact from perhaps a more muted stock market performance. I mean if we look at S&P 500 is not actually growing too much year-to-date. So I just wanted to hear your thoughts on that.

And last but not least, on the cluster performance. If I look at your regional retail trends, it is quite clear that the Japanese -- sorry, the Chinese, American, European consumers are up in the double-digit territory. Are you able to talk a bit about the Koreans, the Japanese? I'm just interested to hear other trends in other Asian markets.

Thank you, Chris. Let me answer that. Well, so far, even in the U.S. what I'm going to New York next Monday, and we see it very positively as we speak. I mean it's really successful in the United States.

Luca, can you comment on Korean and the other Asian countries?

Yes, of course. We have gathered campaign orders. We love these orders in terms of both quantities and quality. Well, for us, this is very important, says Brunello, because there are -- there's a clear indication that the level is getting higher and higher. So since these markets didn't buy much from, let's say, mid-market brands, there's more space for real luxury today.

Well, Chris, thank you for your question on Japan and Korea. These are 2 markets that are doing very, very well. Both markets appreciate quality very much, Japan in particular. And something we absolutely like is that both these markets are captured to serve multi-brands. And department stores are very, very important there. The customer loyalty towards department stores is unprecedented and unparalleled. I mean they have been loyal to department stores and multi-brand stores for centuries now. So this shows how contemporary, and how important well executed multi-brands are.

So Korea is actually becoming more and more important in our world, too. Our people in the design offices are working on this more.

Brunello speaking now and saying, well, Chris, 10 years ago, we would never imagine to do research in Korea. We used to go to the U.K., Germany, Belgium, whereas our people do go out and do a lot of research in Japan and Korea in particular. Korea is an extremely creative country. So this is very, very interesting for us.

And Luca speaking now, as you know, we do have wholesale and distribution agreements there that are really important for us. And last year, we opened a beautiful story in Gangnam, which is conveying a fantastic image for our brand. And when the owner invited me for lunch, however, the lunch was all Italian and garlic-free. Ms. Shinsuke invited me and my wife over and she said, we have prepared an Italian garlic-free lunch for you, which was fantastic, by the way. So that means a lot of mutual respect between countries. So generally speaking, we're very positive towards everything, with the exception, of course, of the war.

James Grzinic from Jefferies.

Congratulations for a fine quarter. I have 2 quick questions. We are happy to Brunello commenting. So starting from the Middle East. What was the impact on the wholesale order in the region in the first quarter? So can you -- did you already see an impact, or is it something that we will see later on? And then this rate 20% retail in the first quarter, do we have to believe that this contribution might be around 7%, 8%, given the timing for your openings in 2025 and the next?

Well, as for the first quarter, Luca speaking, there's balance between comp and non-comp. Then as part to the order collection in the Middle East, it had completed indeed before the start of the war. But Brunello comments, nobody asked to cancel any orders. So this is very positive.

The only thing that we said with them, we had some shipments of the summer -- the summer in March that we diverted elsewhere, but it was just the summer sales. So we can say that for the time being, we do not really feel it, this war.

And it is also incredible to acknowledge how everybody wishes to live normally. So stores were closed for one afternoon only as a matter of fact, and we saw images of other stores opening.

Brunello says, we speak to with America on a daily basis. They say that actually the war is ranked second or third in the news, whereas in Italy, in the Italian television starts off immediately with the war any kind of new edition. And now we have -- it was Ukraine, now Iran.

So I have been at war, Brunello says, or part of the war for 4 years because indirectly our experience, it was in America. This topic comes second or third when the news broadcasts. Well, yes, they are further away geographically. But Brunello says, personally, I feel at war -- have been at war for 4 years since when Russia started with the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But I wish and hope that, well, truth be told, I was really scared, frightened the other night when the President said those words. I spoke with my wife, and you might even think that something tragic might happen, as it was the case for the Hiroshima bombing. So of course, you try not to think about that, but you have a seeping fear.

So we live in 2 worlds. On the one hand, we have the business, and we focus on that. And on the other hand, we have tension and fear underlying it all. And on top of that, I would say that humanity needs a new world order. And within this world order, it will take efforts to reach this new world order.

Well, hopefully, we are close to the -- to our destination of the -- well, yes, but when you have a President make you some statements, truth to be told, we will wipe out the whole civilization. I'm in love with the culture, I have the bust of Cyrus the Great at home, who ruled Persia between [ 509, 503 ]. He was a man, he was enlightened for mankind. If I hear someone say that they will wipe out this civilization, I was really scared. And I thank God, right in the middle of the night, I received the message of the truth -- truce, sorry, being signed. So there is some sort of seeping concern because we are the first generation who, well, never experienced a war directly.

Next question by Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo.

My first question is about the performance of the European market in this first quarter. Were there some regions that outperformed or underperformed? And what supported growth, local demand or also tourist demand still positive?

And the second question concerns retail in the U.S. in the first quarter. In the press release, you mentioned an acceleration compared to the previous quarter. Would it be possible to have a precise figure for this retail growth?

Luca?

As far as Europe is concerned, Oriana, growth is well scattered across geographies. As you know, we -- may I say that if you hear someone complaining a bit more, it's Germany, the German market. They are complaining, Brunello says, but we can't say the results differ in German stores. But the Germans are a bit like that. The Frankfurter Allgemeine mentioned this the other day, but there was an article about me on the Frankfurter Allgemeine that mentioned pessimism.

And also tourism, Luca resumes, tourism is the high-end tourism and therefore, it is not at all impacted by the breaking out of the war.

As to the American retail, we can confirm that we had already experienced a particularly favorable second half of the year last year and this first half of the year, but it is a very responsive market. And it is welcoming our collection with a lot of appreciation. Brunello?

I have to say that the market is faring well. But then, of course, different brands, different stories. One thing is for sure, the market is in dire need for new and upcoming brands. This is the way it is. When you walk into your department store and you say, what's new? And you want a new restaurant in Milan, a new restaurant in Rome, you want new brands. So that's what the customers ask for. And as [ La Bruyere ] said in 17th century, one trend and one fashion will be replaced by another, and this one by another again. Today, we have Mr. Barilla, who is the member of our Board. And he said, well, yes, that's difficult, yes, but you sell pasta, we said to him. And if we get the connections wrong, we will have 20% less, whereas for pasta, everybody eats pasta and we always have sales. But for the time being, we are all focused on good things, although the war really is there. And now I want to believe in this truce because I think that nobody wants the war. But it's something bigger than us.

But why did you confirm estimates, you might ask? Because we believe in that because we need to have something to work on and also because we want to really be clear with all the local institutions, and we want everybody to know what we are doing. We don't want to hide behind the statement, we are listed, so we can't divulge anything.

Next question from Paola Carboni of Equita SIM.

Congratulations for this great trend in the first quarter. Two quick questions. Could you please get back to what you said about the latest weeks in March, where after the war broke, of course, there was an impact on the Middle East, but it was offset by other geographies that are performing very well. So could you please give us more details about them and some color -- add some color to that?

And then my second question is about Europe and wholesale in Europe in particular. I know you had asked your clients to be more, let's say, careful on digital channels. So I was asking myself what kind of response you've had from your customers here.

Yes. Brunello speaking. In December, Paola, we wrote a letter to our clients and said, let's collaborate, but you have very beautiful physical stores and be very careful with online stores because online may be a small percentage of sales, but they may be pretty dangerous for your image, and everybody understood and responded. So I think the atmosphere here is really good, Paola.

So for the quarter, yes, we did have a slight decrease in that cluster. But Paola, we're talking about a few hundred thousands of euros. So these are not earth-shattering figures actually. So of course, the spring/summer collection was particularly good. We are harvesting very good results.

But in general, I think we are perceiving, we are feeling a very good atmosphere on the brand. So the brand is healthy. It's in great shape. There were times when the brand was not as healthy as today, but these new collections, this new size before winter, we had a beautiful, beautiful welcome. And if you look at the new collections from other brands, including our beloved Chanel with the new designers coming on, there's a lot of excitement and good atmosphere.

Okay, Paola said, so there was a slight decrease, but nothing to worry? No, absolutely. Absolutely not. Also, the wholesale accounts are doing well. They have canceled no orders before winter, no particular problem. But we don't want to take this too lightly, considering the times we're living through.

So we'll see what happens in Q2. Retail might be growing by 15% to 16% and people will say that retail will slow down. See what I mean, Paola? That might be the general impression. But so far, the most important thing is they strike a peace agreement. We all need it.

And so as a company, we are not really suffering the cost of energy too much, not in any proportion as to alter our P&L because 63% of our production is handmade. Of course, we're not energy intensive. But we don't want to take things too lightly. Also because being too light at the moment like now, well, I've said it during several meetings, we're very focused, and we're very careful to anyone who suffers the consequences of war. We are at war. That's the truth.

Thank you. And for the other question?

Yes. Paola, you may imagine that the Middle East is 5% of our revenues and 1 month of war, while it was offset by a slight overperformance in other geographies. So we're actually talking about relatively small figures. So we know that the European performance was in line with our expectations, and America and Asia actually outperformed, and this has more than offset what we haven't obtained in the Middle East. Thank you.

There are no further questions so far.

Very good. So thank you. All the best for everything. And hopefully, we'll get together again in a few days' time and the war will be further away. Thank you very much.

This is the chorus call operator. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your phones. Thank you.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

[Audio Gap]

[Foreign Language] Brunello Cucinelli, President; Luca Lisandroni, CEO; Ricardo Stefanelli, CEO; Dario Pipitone, CFO; Moreno Ciarapica, Co-CFO Senior; and Pietro Arnaboldi, Investor Relations and Corporate Planning Director. [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] So the most important thing is that next week, we have the Milanese Fashion Week, perhaps the most important appointment for our industry. And we have the international as well as the Italian press coming to the appointment. And we can definitely talk freely, speak freely with them because we have already disclosed our results. This is -- the same happens when we go to Pitti the early January.

Then the second item, having clarified and completed our entire relationship with the new course of Saks Global following its restructuring, now this allows us to share everything with you. And we are very satisfied with this new relationship, both in terms of sales and brand image.

So these new timings -- so for this call, we would like to also keep the schedule also for the years to come. As always, all 10 of us are here today. This is how we would like to proceed. I will present the key figures. Dario, our CFO, will go through the details. I will explain everything regarding Saks Global. Then I will go through a detailed growth plan for 2026, a couple of words on 2027. Luca will touch upon the international markets and then 5 minutes for the strengths of our business model in which we strongly believe and where we see great opportunities for the years ahead.

Now -- so excellent revenues with a turnover of EUR 1.408 billion, representing growth of 11.5% at constant exchange rates and 10.1% at current exchange rates. Normalized EBIT of EUR 235.9 million, representing an increase of 11.4%, margins of 16.8%, up from 16.6% the previous year. Net profit of EUR 142 million, an increase of 10.5% with an impact on sales of 10.1%, in line with the previous year. So the completion of the '24, '25 and '26, 3-year project for Made in Italy artisanal production has been brought forward by 6 months with extraordinary investment, and this will enable us to operate to function with confidence over the next 10 to 15 years. So in 2025, investment amounted to EUR 146.2 million, accounting for 10.4% of turnover. Net debt for the core business amounted to EUR 198.4 million, reflecting the significant investments made and the distribution of EUR 68.8 million in dividends.

The Board of Directors will propose to the shareholders' meeting called for 23rd of April 2026. So the proposal will be the distribution of a dividend of EUR 1.04 per share payout of 51%. Then the strong start to sales in the boutiques is also another important item together with a solid order intake for the upcoming fall/winter men's and women's collections. And this enables us to confirm for 2026 an expected revenue increase of around 10% at constant exchange rate, reflecting our long-term sustainable growth project. A gradual improvement in the financial position is expected, favored by the return to ordinary investment levels from 2026, having completed ahead of schedule the significant investment plan for the Made in Italy artisanal production.

On 21st of January this year, the new AI-based e-commerce website was unveiled. It was developed on the proprietary Callimachus platform with the aim of offering personalized tailor-made experiences and placing uniqueness, exploration, discovery right at the core. We believe that this new pageless website can generate benefits, both in terms of brand image and revenue. And I'll give you more color later on.

On April 14, in New York at the Lincoln Center, we will host the first of the world premiere of the documentary film Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, following the warm reception given to its absolute premiere on December 4 in Rome, Cinecitta. The premiere will continue in the major world capitals, and it will end in December in the Middle East.

And this will entail a lot of travel. So a year has ended that we are pleased to describe as solid, balanced and beautiful, marked by excellent results in terms of revenue, profits and also international recognition. These achievements should allow us to look ahead with confidence to a future of outstanding prospects, growth in the years to come, positive forecast and enduring prosperity. Markets across all geographies appear to be expanding in a healthy and harmonious manner where each fashion brand expresses its own heritage, identity and positioning.

We are receiving extremely positive feedback regarding the Callimachus platform developed by our Solomeo AI, our new e-commerce conceived to offer visitors an AI-driven digital experience through which they may discover the brand's collections in a manner that is consistent with the values that have always inspired us. At the core of Callimachus lies a new concept of website without pages and endowed with its own intelligence. It is a system that is capable of understanding and following each user's preferences, delivering a personalized, dynamic and pleasant and engaging experience in real time. Visitors are spending more time on the new e-commerce platform than in the past because the experience seems to be both stimulating and enjoyable. To conclude, in this first part of the year, sales continue to perform extremely well across all markets and then Luca will give you more color on this.

The excellent order intake currently underway for the Fall/Winter '26 collections, together with the positive feedback from buyers, the international press and our teams in our boutiques, well, this leads us to envisage with confidence for this year too, a balanced and solid revenue growth of around 10%, accompanied by the achievement of a healthy profit.

And now Dario, you know that you have been translated, so do not speed up too much.

Yes. Thank you, Brunello, and good evening, everyone. I will begin with an analysis of -- and please use the presentation to follow the slides from Slide 24 onwards of the presentation. The final revenue figures confirm the preliminary data released last January 12 with revenue growth of 10.1% at current exchange rates and 10 -- 11.5% at constant exchange rates. With regard to the other income statement items, Slide 26 shows that as at 31st December 2025, we report a balanced margin and cost structure with the reported EBIT and net profit increasing by 7.6% and 10.5%, respectively, compared to December 31 last year.

Normalizing margins for the extraordinary provision of EUR 8.1 million recorded during the year following the Chapter 11 filing of our client Saks Global. So normalized EBIT amounts to EUR 235.9 million or 16.8% of revenues compared to 16.6% in 2024, a growth of 11.4% reported there. First margin equal to 75.2% of revenues increased by 11.1% compared to last year, mainly ascribable to the sales mix by distribution channel, product mix and geography. Operating costs increased by 10.5%, reflecting the expansion of our fashion house.

Now moving to Slide 28 for a detailed analysis of the main cost items, namely personnel costs, rents and communication investments. So we can highlight that personnel costs as at 31st December 2025 amounted to EUR 255.4 million, and it's with -- increasing by 9.4%, slightly less than proportional to revenue growth with an impact of 18.1% as at 31st December -- sorry, it was 18.3% last year. As of 31st December 2025, total headcount stands at 3,327 FTEs with an increase of 226 FTEs compared to last year. And this is down to the targeted expansion of our retail network and also the strengthening of our artisanal production workforce as part of the project launched last year to expand in-house handcrafted production.

Now moving on to rent costs. So net of IFRS 16 effects, this cost amounted to EUR 218.9 million or 15.6% of revenues, up 19.5% compared to EUR 183.2 million or 14.3% of revenues as last year. This increase is mainly down to 3 different items: new and selected openings and enlargements carried out throughout the year, certain important lease renewals and partially costs that we began recognizing in 2025 relating to openings and enlargements expected in the coming months. As to the communication investments, they went up by 5% or EUR 4.6 million, amounting to EUR 96.9 million with an impact of 6.9% vis-a-vis EUR 92.3 million or 7.2% last year. So the above reflects our ongoing and increasingly strong focus on consolidating the brand's positioning within the absolute luxury segment as well as organizing family -- organizing small events that enhance the brand allure without affecting its exclusivity. As we said last August, major events were concentrated in the second half of the year mainly with communication investments accounting for 7.2% of revenues compared to 6.5% in the first 6 months.

So before moving on to the main KPIs below EBITDA, it is appropriate to briefly comment on transport and duties, which amounts to EUR 62.4 million as at 31st December '25 or 4.4% of revenues compared to EUR 55.2 million the previous year, 4.3% of revenues. This item went up by 10.4%, in line with revenue growth.

So to conclude on Slide 26, as at 31st December 2025, depreciation and amortization amounted to EUR 180.6 million compared to EUR 153 million in 2024, up 18% or EUR 27.6 million, mainly ascribable to new lease contracts signed during the period.

Consistently with our earlier comments on rents, excluding IFRS 16 effects, depreciation and amortization amount to EUR 55.6 million compared to EUR 49 million in 2024, with a slight increase in the impact on revenues from 3.8% to 4% for this year. Following the EBIT growth, as previously mentioned, and after financial management reporting net financial expenses of EUR 29.1 million and a tax rate of 28.5%, net profit as at the 31st of December '25 amounts to EUR 142 million with an impact of 10.1%, up 10.5% compared to last year.

Before concluding the income statement analysis, I would briefly come back to financial management with reference to Slide 29, sorry, where we provide the usual breakdown, highlighting so-called recurring component on which to project expectations for the year. Then we have a component which is linked to exchange rate fluctuations, and there is a component reflecting the effects of equity investments. The increase in the ordinary and recurring component is equal to EUR 15.7 million and is mainly attributable to -- well, for EUR 6.8 million, financial expenses and lease liabilities amounting to EUR 27 million as at 31st December '25 compared to EUR 20.2 million of last year, following new lease contracts signed during the period. And for the remaining part, EUR 6.4 million relating to the increase in net financial expenses associated with characteristic with net financial debt to the core business, which we will comment on shortly.

The exchange rate component shows an income increase of EUR 18.6 million, mainly reflecting unrealized net gains from currency fluctuations and therefore, subject to variation from period to period.

Now let's turn to Slide 30 and following. I'd like to share a few brief comments on the balance sheet items such as net working capital, investments and net financial debt. The net working capital, including other net current assets and liabilities, amounts to EUR 313.2 million with an impact on revenues as at the 31st of December 2025 of 22.2% versus 19.3% at the 31st of December 2024. In detail, well, the items were developed as follows: trade receivables at the 31st of December '24 amounted to EUR 82.1 million at 30 June 2025, EUR 103.6 million and EUR 101.2 million at the 31st of December '25, corresponding to 7.2% of revenues versus 6.4% last year. These dynamics reflect strong revenue performance, particularly in the wholesale channel and the net balance due from the Saks Global Group, which we expect to recover upon completion of the Chapter 11 procedure, against which we recorded an extraordinary provision of EUR 8.1 million, bringing our bad debt reserve net of utilizations to EUR 13.7 million at the 31st of December '25. Excluding the extraordinary event relating to Saks Global, we therefore consider our receivables position extremely sound with losses recorded during the year equal to 0.09% of revenues, which is, virtually nil, consistent with our track record.

Payment terms to suppliers, collaborators and third-party consultants remain unchanged with trade payables amounting to EUR 177.1 million versus EUR 169.2 million at the 31st of December '24, up 4.7% due to the business growth. Inventory impact on revenues stands at 28.3%, which is substantially in line with both the 30th of June and the 31st of December 2024 reported results, and this is a level that we consider as healthy and ordinary for our company.

Other net current assets and liabilities show a negative balance at the 31st of December '25, equal to EUR 9.7 million versus EUR 36.5 million in 2024, with changes that are almost entirely attributable to the fair value measurement of derivatives, hedging currency risks.

Moving on to investments. I'm on Slide 32. You see that as at the 31st of December 2025, investments amount to EUR 146.2 million, 10.4% of revenues versus 8.6% last year. And they relate to -- well, for EUR 84 million, significant commercial investments supporting the image of our fashion house and the contemporaneity of spaces, both in showrooms and in our boutiques. For EUR 46.1 million, they are referred to likewise important investments aimed at consolidating our strongly artisanal production capacity within the 10-year project that Brunello mentioned and for about EUR 16.1 million, well, these are almost entirely referred to significant technology investments.

Finally, the net financial debt for the core business on Slide 33 amounts to EUR 198.4 million or 14% of revenues at the 31st of December '25, in line with what we discussed in our August call versus EUR 103.6 million at the 31st of December '24. The 2025 net financial position for the core business reflects the positive operating results for the period, the significant investment plan, both in sales and real estate and changes in the net working capital as described above as well as dividend payments totaling EUR 68.8 million.

Thank you all for your attention. Well, Brunello, well, I concluded my remarks. I would like to hand the floor back to you.

All right. So before summarizing the 2025 and talking about the 2026 and '27 projects, I'd like to go into the detail of the Saks Global issue. We have had a great -- more than 30 years of relationship with Neiman Marcus, Saks and Bergdorf Goodman, which were brought together last year under Saks Global, but we continue to regard them as 3 distinct department stores in the world of fashion that are extremely important and among the finest in the world. We have grown consistently in both revenue and brand image. And in over 30 years, we've never lost a single donor. So we're not commenting on the financial merger. But for us, they remain separate brands, as I said.

Only a very small amount of end customers overlap between Neiman Marcus and Saks. And this means that in the eyes of the final client, the strong and distinct value of the brands, Neiman Marcus, Saks and Bergdorf Goodman clearly remains. The spaces we have with them are very nice. They're beautiful, significant, located in equally important locations. Broadly speaking, our relationship with them is about, well, half concession and half traditional wholesale, representing approximately 6% to 7% of our total company revenues. For us, business in 2025 has performed very, very well with all 3, Saks, Neiman and Bergdorf, both menswear and womenswear and the image, the visual presentation and lifestyle positioning have remained at a very high level.

Since January, there has been a new team in place. We think they are highly capable. We know them very well because the team is led by Geoffroy van Raemdonck and Lana. They are outstanding product experts, and this is something we've always appreciated. They're going -- they're coming to Milan next week. And so first and foremost, the discussion is about product, then about brand contemporaneity, visual identity and lifestyle and only afterwards about other topics. The entire team performed very well at Neiman Marcus. We met them in New York, and they clearly explained the group's new strategy, which is very clear, is based on concentration and elevation.

This means closing nonprofitable stores, which incidentally do not concern us and carefully selecting brands in order to remain firmly positioned in the true luxury while including contemporary brands. So we are closing this 2025 cycle with them by booking a provision of EUR 8 million to cover any potential losses, as we said, which allows us to feel very comfortable for the future. These would represent the only potential losses in more than 30 years of track record with them. Since the end of January, we've begun this new phase. We've resumed deliveries. We are already receiving payments on time, and they are preparing orders with extreme care for the autumn/winter 2026 men's and women's collections.

The feedback on the collections has been so far truly exceptional. They said, you have created the 2 most beautiful collections in our history. Hopefully, that's true. Well, these assessments align perfectly with those of our other clients, the teams in our boutiques as well. Well, the best objectives that they've used are rich and unique. We like them very much. They've told us that sales of our brand have been performing well at the beginning of this year, too.

And this is a very important moment. So please note and remember that we always consider the 3 brands together, but separate. So we expect a year of solid growth, not only in terms of revenue, but also in terms of image by -- from Goodman, we will have 2 new spaces.

So final conclusions for the year 2025, which is for us the second -- the end of the second year of our 5-year plan '24 to '28. 2028 will mark the 50th anniversary of the company. We have defined this year as record-breaking in terms of growth, profits, investments and also for the recognition. Revenues increased by 11.5% at current exchange rates and by 10.1% at constant exchange rates. Throughout our history, our 30 years as a listed company, we have achieved an average revenue growth of 13.7%. Well, in 2021, '22, we recorded a 30% growth, which was rather unusual, but 13.7% at current exchange rates and 13.4% at constant exchange rates.

EBIT showed a slight improvement, 16.8% normalized because of the Saks-related topic. Net profit, 10.1%. Inventory remains healthy, high quality, well balanced as has always been the case for our company. Please note that we work in the apparel world, and this has been our average value since we became public. If inventory were a bit older, the image in the boutiques would be old styled as well and not contemporary any longer, and this would have an impact on sales.

Investments, well, we reached a peak in 2025 with 10.4%. However, now that we have completed all our factories and the expansion of our headquarters, well, we feel well positioned for the next 10 to 15 years at net debt maximum level, but we consider that a healthy level over the next 3 years. It will decrease as investments will normalize at around 6% mainly related to commercial activities. But do not think we have reduced investments. They should be viewed in combination with the last 3-year period during which they accounted for approximately 9% on average dividends and change to 50% of the net profit.

So how do we envisage 2026 in quite a tangible way? Sales in the first part of the year have been excellent across all geographies. And Luca will go into details shortly. We expect healthy growth of around 10%, EBIT growing more than proportionally, investments at around 6% and communication investments between 6% and 6.5%, what was 6.9% last year because in the past 3 years accounted for about 0.5%, but there was the film project, which ended, then inventory stable as a percentage at around 28%. Net debt improving, also thanks to lower investments in artisanal production. Dividends, as usual.

So it seems to us that at this moment, the brand image is very clear, and it has a very well-rooted identity in menswear and womenswear, style identity in absolute luxury and identity rooted in exclusivity, craftsmanship and quality, the identity of the thoroughly Italian company, including its idea of sustainability.

All of this supported by the recognition and accolades received in 2025. And the film was released in 2025. And in 2026, the movie will tour the world starting in April in the United States. How we see 2027, but only in general terms, just to give you some visibility. So no changes in strategy, healthy and balanced growth of around 10%, slight improvement in EBIT. And overall, we expect a similar -- a performance similar to 2026. And if that happens, we would be very pleased. Luca, now it's up to you. Thank you.

So let's now step into 2026 based on -- building up from 2025. The first part of the year brings us 2 very positive pieces of new excellent retail sales and a very, very positive Fall/Winter 2026 sales campaign.

Let us begin with retail and starting from the product. So the first month of the year is always a pretty sensitive period because there is the overlap of 2 collections, winter and spring/summer. Winter sales continued to perform pretty well. But it was the first deliveries of the spring/summer collection that truly provided a boost to our sales. This means that we worked effectively on the season launch in terms of timing, proportions and weight and visual merchandising. But even more importantly, this means that the creativity of the new Spring/Summer '26 collection currently being sold in stores has been highly appreciated by end customers. And this represents a very strong guarantee for the rest of the season. So this becomes even more meaningful when you understand that this is consistent across all geographies and even balanced between men and women. So we can now confidently say that we can rely on a very beautiful and very fine spring/summer collection.

Now from regional standpoint, still within retail. North America, excellent sales and even with a slight acceleration compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. Europe, very good, thanks to the crucial role of local clientele. And particularly positive and immediate has been the contribution from the flagship expansions in London and Paris, along with the widespread growth across the rest of the European network.

As you know, we are very closely linked with a very high -- we look up at Hermes, and we greatly appreciated Axel Dumas' remark talking about expansion, saying that it is the customers who push the walls of the stores. It is a great expression. So we therefore want to thank our customers in London and Paris who have enabled us to make these stores even more welcoming and vibrant besides them being bigger. In Europe, we had no new openings throughout 2025 nor in this first part of the year. Therefore, the result is definitely on a largely comparable basis. Asia, excellent sales there with China growing significantly and consistently week after week from the very first days of the year, regardless of the different timing of the Chinese New Year. And when we take a look at our results in the past 12 months, we can say that store by store, we have achieved a new and higher level of performance.

Now taking a look at our retail channel as a whole overall, we can say that it continues to benefit on the one hand from growth in the number of customers period after period between 5% and 10%, thanks to the onboarding of new clients and on the other hand, an increased average spending by existing customers. These figures highlight both the attractiveness of the brand and also our ability to create long-term value in customer relationships. And they seem to outline a very solid and reassuring evolution of our customer portfolio.

The growth in average retail selling price is higher than the increase in average list price due to a sales mix that basically favors more special products. Well, whenever this occurs, we view it as a very healthy element for our sales and a strong representation -- and also for our positioning and a strong representation of the steady elevation of demand at the high end of the market. So based on this, we expect a very strong retail quarter in which the exchange rate effect, the ForEx effect will be noticeable, but then we believe that it will normalize over the course of the year, especially from April, where there was high volatility last year. But even at current exchange rates, however, we expect a very positive performance.

Let us now turn to wholesale. We have completed the men's sales campaign, and we are approximately halfway through the women's campaign for the Fall/Winter '26 collections, but we can already say that we have received very flattering feedback on both collections. And we consider our order collection management to be excellent. So during the meetings we had in our showrooms, we have basically restated the message from our Christmas letter to send to our 400 multi-brand clients, probably the best of the finest in the world. In that letter, we asked them to -- even in the online activities, to basically try and achieve the very same nobility that the brands are recognized for in the physical brick-and-mortar world. We're very pleased that our clients have embraced this message, and we are highly confident that the wholesale channel will increasingly contribute positively to strengthening the modern and exclusive perception of our brand. The strength of the collection has allowed us to minimize the impact of this request on orders.

So we expect to close yet another quarter with slight growth in the wholesale channel, but more important than the performance in the single quarter, however, is the assurance that multi-brand clients worldwide have closed a strong winter season with us and opened the summer season with sell-out levels that are even better than last year.

In conclusion, the results and indications from this start to 2026 reinforce our conviction that we can experience yet another year of growth around 10%. We expect growth to be more concentrated in the retail channel and well distributed across regions, always moving towards an increasing geographic balance.

Now 8, 9 minutes devoted to the main topics and then, of course, discussion and take your time for that. So we have a fashion house that accounts for 75% and lifestyle accounts for 25%. And we are mainly a ready-to-wear brand and only 25% in apparel and 15% accessories. This is how we want to grow. And this is how we believe we were recognized last year in London with the Fashion Oscar we received last December, a clear identity in Italian men's and women's style of true luxury, great craftsmanship, quality and exclusivity. So therefore, we must remain exclusive and also strict in our communication, especially online as we have always tried to do.

So we account -- retail accounts for 68% and wholesale 32%, expect to drop to 30% in 2026. We have 136 directly operated stores, a few openings each year, just 3 or 4 expansions of existing stores and occasional relocations and between 470,000 and 500,000 customers annually with about 5%, 10% new customers added to the equation every year. And then we organize these events, these small-scale events worldwide, gathering about 100, 150 clients per evening. And we find this format to be very important because you can speak to anybody attending. According to recent measurements, customers spend about 30, 31 minutes in our boutiques. A year ago, it was 16 minutes, 50% men, 50% women.

Casa Cucinelli are very important. We currently have 9 worldwide. We will open the 10th in Shanghai in early September, and we will organize events there. Then revenues per country. So today, 37% North America, 35% Europe, 28% Asia, of which 13% China. Perhaps in 3, 5 years, we expect the split to be as follows: 33% U.S.A., 33% Europe, 33% Asia, with China possibly reaching 18%, 20%. We started late in this country, but we see great opportunities in the years ahead.

Then production and sustainability. We collaborate with approximately 400 SMEs, 800, 500 people, 80% of whom are located in Umbria, Tuscany and Marche.

Sustainability. So Ricardo was included by Time in the Time 100 Climate 2025 list as one of the most influential international leaders in climate action. We have always believed in sustainability: in environmental sustainability, avoid waste, recover everything possible; human sustainability, meaning how much you earn; spiritual sustainability, how you treat others; technology-related sustainability, how long do I have to be online for business reasons; and moral sustainability because we are a company based in Italy that works in Italy, produces in Italy, manufactures in Italy and striving to work for the future of our nation, and we also pay our dues here.

A very important topic. In 2025, we had around 3,400 employees with approximately 250 new hires per year. Employee turnover is extremely low across the company. However, please note that we never implemented and never will implement working from home or remote working for 3 main reasons. Because that way, if you do remote working, there is no distinction between private and work life. This jeopardizes collective creativity and especially young people learn almost nothing. And they basically come up with the idea that they will always work 3 days per week only. This is the reason why we decided to ban it. We have always wanted to work 8 hours a day, very focused with 1.5 hours in the company restaurants. So if we were to remove this no remote working rule, turnover in the company would be almost 0. This does not mean that we do not consider or hold human flexibility extremely high, which has always been a tenet of our company. So we all start at 8, but if you need to -- if you have a medical appointment, you can definitely take it. And the vibes in the company are pretty pleasant.

So about prices. The pure price increase in 2026 is around 3%. Part of this depends, even though a negligible one, depends on the new clothing industry labor contract in Italy, which was renewed in 2025 after 6 years of unchanged numbers, EUR 60 a month after 6 years, I'm not so sure that it will be easy to recruit new labor. But we have 20,000 job applications per year. We only need 300, but you should consider that out of the 20,000, 4,000 are willing to perform labor work, of course, high-quality artisanal work.

Then there are about 100 people in the design team, 20 of whom are top level, plus myself as a coordinator. That's why you can definitely be sure that even if I was to pass away, the company would not be stuck. My time at the company is 80% devoted to product, including visual, stylists and lifestyle. We have the academy in Solomeo for the arts and crafts, and we have a lot of confidence, thanks to that, that the value of the hamlet, Solomeo, that's very important. Every year, we welcome about 13,000 to 14,000 visitors, including customers, friends, journalists, celebrity, politicians, and I have a problem. The only person having a problem is me because I have to dine with someone every single night. So we believe that the village of Solomeo gives us -- this hamlet gives us a strongly rooted identity and uniqueness. And honestly, we work daily to preserve it.

A couple of minutes on Callimachus. Callimachus is based on a new concept of a website. It was launched in January. Well, an important thing, well, usually, people tend to stay 4 minutes on our website, and now they stay 9 minutes, and they usually visit 3x more products, and this is very important. Just let me share a couple of feedbacks. Well, companies that are leading in the world, so leading in all industries. They said, for example, a truly exciting turning point for digital storytelling in luxury; or another feedback, a clear break from the traditional rules of e-commerce, a radically innovative experience, truly brilliant or congratulations on this fantastic project. Congratulations on the wonderful work you've done, we would love to meet you.

Groq, for example, I can disclose this name, the one that NVIDIA bought for $20 billion. Well, Groq said that's their feedback, Callimachus reinvents websites and e-commerce. Solomeo AI has launched an online platform based entirely on artificial intelligence, transforming Brunello Cucinelli's e-commerce into a personalized shopping experience that reflects the attention and care typical of a luxury boutique. Another very important company says a true innovation that pushes the boundaries, highly inspiring. And then another one says beautiful website that truly represents your manual work and craftsmanship.

This is the feedback of 10 leading brands in the world, which wrote to us, and we like this very much. Where we started this project as a sort of a hobby. This is not our core business, but we reached a great success.

Conclusions, we think we have great opportunities in the years ahead, provided we continue to develop contemporary collections. So first and foremost, we have to focus on products. The Fall/Winter 2026 men's and women's collection are the most beautiful ever as reported. But having strong collections in stores gives us a bit more peace of mind between July and December now regardless of what happens than worldwide. So we are experiencing a very positive moment for the brand image and a brand which is Italian, artisanal, contemporary and exclusive in terms of luxury.

So thank you very much for your attention. We can open up the discussion now.

[Operator Instructions] The first question from Andrea Randone, Intermonte.

I have a first question, which may be a bit trivial, a bit banal, but this is to better understand the guidance at constant exchange rates. You are talking about a quite heavy exchange rate with a quite heavy impact on the first part of the year. Can you give us more flavor? Are you talking about 2%? Is this going to be the impact on the full year? Is it a reasonable value?

And then I have a second question. Can you summarize again the elements that lead to an improvement in cash generation? You talked about normalization of investments, stable working capital. So these seem to be the main elements for an improvement in cash generation. But this is certainly -- well, the normalization of cash generation is certainly important for the market. So if you can please recap these elements?

And the third question concerning business. I'm curious to know whether you were happy with the take-up of Harrods in London or well satisfied or happy with similar initiatives. Do you think they are effective?

Andrea, I will answer the second question. As far as exchange rates are concerned, we estimate 1.2%, 1.5% to 2% for the full year. And the first -- in the first quarter, we may have 4%, 5%. But then from April onwards, well, we think it will be 1.5% for the full year. Then as far as the take-up of Harrods is concerned, this was a beautiful success, honestly speaking. Now this year, I think, they will celebrate the 130th anniversary or something like that.

So Luca will take the other answers.

Well, first of all, we want to go back to an ordinary level of investments in the past 3 years. As Brunello said, we had a very high concentration of investments. For next year, we envisage to continue with commercial investments that are absolutely ordinary. The extraordinary part of investments dedicated to factories will no longer be there. So please, Andrea, do not think we've dropped our investments. That's very important. Investments remain the same.

Next question, Oriana Cardani, Intesa Sanpaolo.

I have 2 questions. First question about the first margin. Do you expect a result for 2026 in line with the 2025 result? Or do you see any potential for an increase as a percentage of revenues?

And the second question is on fragrances and glasses, eyeglasses. Can you comment from a qualitative and quantitative viewpoint, the performance of these 2 categories last year? And for eyewear, are you expecting to extend the partnership with EssilorLuxottica on the smart glasses part?

Luca will take the question on eyewear. And then as far as revenues are concerned, we expect to be in line with what we said. And well, if we can increase that by the end of the year even further, would be even better, but that's it. As for fragrances and eyewear, well, they have been performing very well, especially from an image viewpoint because we have positioned them the right way, as EssilorLuxottica said. So we are very important for them like Chanel. Well, with Chanel, they make huge numbers, but it's in terms of research and positioning. Fragrances are very high end and the response rate is very high.

Do you want to add anything on eyewear?

Yes. This was the very target when we launched both categories. In these new categories, we wanted to achieve the very same positioning as the one we had in apparel. And I think we've managed to do so. And then as far as extension to smart glasses is concerned, for the time being, this is not in our plans, in our pipeline. However, we have a small high-end eyewear collection in the pipeline with gold frame. So we really want to focus on that. And these are glasses with a price ranging from EUR 5,000 to EUR 9,000. Well, going back to the previous question on first margin. Well, the question was on the first margin and not on revenues, but nothing changes. The final number for 2025 is a very good reference for the results that we are planning for 2026. Well, this doesn't mean that we do not -- we're not happy if we increase by 10 or 20 basis points, but the outlook that we have can be confirmed.

Next question from the conference in English, Chris Huang, UBS.

I have 3, if I may. First one, just a follow-up on the first margin. You said that 2025 is a very good reference for 2026. But I'm just curious about the actual drivers of this first margin expansion in 2025. I think in the press release, you mentioned channel mix being one of the key drivers, but actually channel mix wasn't that big of a difference when it comes to year-over-year performance. So just wondering why gross margin has been so strong in 2025, the drivers behind? Secondly, on the start of the year, I think, Luca, you provided a lot of very helpful comments on the retail channel by different regions [Audio Gap] .

Have new colors on the geographies. So I would start from this question. So as we said multiple times, we do not believe that our business is mature. And the reason being that we have new customers across all different geographies. Then as to the conversion to -- concession to Neiman Marcus, you should consider 3 brands. [indiscernible], I am not talking about the Saks Global gathering together all the 3 brands. We see them as separate distinct brands. We have a very balanced relationship and then we can move on with these 5 doors per year.

Then stores. So the openings are confirmed to Mexico City, Abu Dhabi. And in the first part of the year, we strengthened our network in Florida with 2 smaller stores and then in Wuhan, China. Then you see expansions will play a fundamental role in 2026. In Geneva, we will expand the store in the summer, then we will expand the store in Toronto and also Plaza 66 and Shanghai and also the opening of the Casa Cucinelli Shanghai. [ Paula ], I think we can close at around 140 stores. And we like this. We like the stores to be prime quality, the right size and also the number. We believe in exclusivity.

[Operator Instructions] The next question, a follow-up question from Andrea Randone, Intermonte.

I have a short follow-up question. You mentioned progressive results throughout all geographies. I know that tourism doesn't play a very important role for you. But what about Japan, considering that there are no longer Chinese tourists going to Japan? Is this having an impact on your sales?

Yes, that's true, but this is not new. Last year, Japan benefited much less versus 2024 from tourism. 2024 was an extraordinary year in terms of tourism. However, sales are -- Chris, I have -- well, for you, please call Pietro at the end of the call. So don't worry, you will get all the answers you need. So please call Pietro at the end of this call. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Let me just point out one final thing. Please remember that we always focus on absolute luxury on these markets. So please consider where we are in the market because we always say we work in the very high end of the market in the top luxury market. That's very important.

All right. So thank you very much. Thank you. Chris, please call Pietro. Thank you very much. Well, for the people living in Milan. So remember, next week, we have the Fashion Week. And on Wednesday, we will also get feedback from the press on the women's collection. So thank you very much for this because now that everything has been disclosed, we can speak freely about everything. And so we have a lot of confidence and peace of mind. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye-bye.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good evening, and welcome to the end of year update of the fashion house, Brunello Cucinelli.

Speakers will be Brunello Cucinelli, the Executive Chairman and Creative Director; Luca Lisandroni, CEO; Riccardo Stefanelli, CEO; Dario Pipitone, CFO; Moreno Ciarapica, Co-CFO, Senior; and Pietro Arnaboldi, Investor Relations and Corporate Planning Director.

[Operator Instructions] And now I'd like to give the floor to Brunello Cucinelli.

So here we are. Good evening. It is a pleasure to have you back, investors, analysts, journalists. So this is the last call of the year, which we have been holding regularly since 2020 because you might remember that during the pandemic, we decided to organize it, this call because otherwise, we wouldn't have had any contact with you from mid-October until March. So it's something that we have grown to enjoy. It is an important call because some -- in some ways, it represents a pre-closing of the year. So we would like to ask you the following.

Everything that we will be talking about, you should consider that it concerns absolute luxury. So we believe -- and also ready-to-wear because we are a ready-to-wear company and our fashion house is broken down as follows: 85% ready-to-wear and 15% accessories. This has always been the case since when we went public. So this is important that you bear this in mind.

So there's all 10 of us here. And so how would we like the call to proceed? First things first, we would like to provide you with the end year forecast for 2025. Just 15 days are left with excellent results. Then honestly speaking, this year, we have been harvesting, so to speak, what we expected, perhaps even more. And then a forecast of 2026 with a healthy growth. As you know, it's the figure, it's 10%, and it's part of us.

So what are we working on and the strategies? So this is a very, very, very favorable momentum for our company, for our lifestyle. We have many opportunities to seize. So we were saying this morning at the Board meeting, and we must be good at governing growth, trying to managing growth while remaining exclusive, high quality, highly artisanal, contemporary in our products, contemporary in our boutiques. So we have completed all the factories dedicated to artisanal production, the inventory with detailed explanation. And then Luca will give you an overview of the global markets with the events planned for 2026. And Riccardo will be dwelling on the production.

Then awards and recognitions. This has been quite a good year, remarkable year. So Carolina, my daughter, Vice President. She was listed among the 50 Women in Power 2025 in Fashion and Retail by WWD. Riccardo was included in the TIME 100 Climate 2025 list. So he went to Brazil to be presented with this accolade. On December 1, we were presented with the World Fashion Oscar from the British Fashion Council. And this is really one of a kind. Then we -- a major event in London was held last week. The movie was premiered last -- on December 4. And then in mid-January, we will be launching the new e-commerce website. And we believe that it will be very important, not just for the results, but also for those who joined the website and understand more about our company.

So let me read out the press release. 2025 is proving to be a record year for us, both in terms of numbers and brand image. Excellent sales throughout the year allow us to envision a revenue increase at constant exchange rates between 11% and 12%, higher than our expectations at the beginning of the year with growth at current exchange rates of around 10%. The fourth quarter promises to be very, very positive with truly pleasing feedback on the style and expected double-digit growth at constant exchange rates, in line with the trend of the third quarter despite a significant -- a decidedly significant comparison base.

In November, we presented the Fall/Winter 2026 women's precollection to our multi-brand clients, receiving particularly flattering feedback. And also, we presented it to the managers of our direct stores receiving equally positive comments. And this collection was considered highly innovative with a very high rate of creativity and innovation. And all of this follows a significant volume of orders already in our portfolio for the spring 2026 season. So we, therefore, confirm a projected revenue growth of around 10% for the year 2026.

2025 represents a year of reaping great rewards in terms of image, both for our fashion house and for Brunello Cucinelli, for myself and my family. So in April, I was -- I received an Honorary Doctorate in Architecture from the University of Campania, Vanvitelli. In September, Carolina, my daughter, was included by the prestigious magazine, WWD in the list of 50 Women in Power. In the first days of November, our CEO, Riccardo Stefanelli, was included by TIME in TIME 100 Climate 2025 list. On December 1, we had the event in London because in -- with Harrods, we took over the 26 windows. It will be displayed there until the end of January 2 followed by the Spring/Summer collection.

And then in the evening, on December 1, the British Fashion Council awarded us this so-called Academy Award of Fashion that was, other honorees were Lagerfeld, Prada and Tom Ford last year. And then on December 4, there was the world premiere of the movie and actually between -- and last night, it was the first time that it was released in Italy in 250 theaters. And in mid-January, we -- there's a scheduled launch of the new AI-based e-commerce site and our friends in the Silicon Valley, they called it a true invention.

So what about my comment? So as 2025 draws to a close, we can look back on a year of excellent results in terms of revenue, profits and great image for the brand. The past year has been exceptionally generous to us, offering many blessings as a company and as individuals, we have received a range of truly special recognitions that have filled us with joy and optimism for the years ahead. Our gentle luxury has been recognized as a model of creativity through the prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award, which I have the honor of receiving for the British Fashion Council. A documentary film telling the story of my life was brought to the screen with a masterful touch of Giuseppe Tornatore, who captured my lifelong vision and transformed it into poetry. He's a poetry, I believe, beautifully accompanied by the moving score of Nicola Piovani, who was really able to translate all this in a very moving manner because we share the very same childhood with them.

My daughter, Carolina was honored by a friend at Women’s Wear Daily. So she was included among the 50 Women in Power 2025, while TIME 100 Climate recognized my esteemed CEO, Riccardo Stefanelli, knowing that all this stems from our commitment to Humanistic Capitalism and Human Sustainability. Well, this fills us with immense pride and motivates us to continue our work with renewed energy. Finally, and with great excitement, we are thrilled to announce that in mid-January, we will launch our new AI-powered e-commerce website, which our friends in the Silicon Valley have described as a genuine innovation.

Concluding with a strong Spring/Summer 2026 order book and excellent winter sell-out performance, we expect healthy revenue growth of around 10% for 2026. So how do we see the year-end 2025? So revenue growth at constant exchange rates of between 11% and 12%, current exchange around 10%. And as you heard before, we call it a record-breaking year. As to the exchange rates in our history, we have always had a -- you see a very low swinging, so around 1%, perhaps something more this year, perhaps next year, too. EBIT margin slightly improving compared to 2024 as planned. So we always seek a fair and balanced level of profit. And this concept is particularly strong -- strongly felt among the younger generations. It is an important topic.

So no client ever tells us you are extremely expensive even though you know our price levels. This gives us confidence and strength in believing that we are on the right path. And importantly, in all the recognitions we are receiving, there is always a reference to fair profit, fair growth, fair wages, workers' conditions. And this means that Human Sustainability is a very, very important and widely felt topic.

Then Sustainability. Riccardo, you will talk about this. I already mentioned it. It's very important because we worked hard on this, and it is a great gift for Riccardo and everybody. Very important investments in artisanal production. And as you know, we have doubled the Solomeo factory. We are nearly -- we are already operational. So -- and the whole plan you know '24, '25, '26, we completed it this year, roughly 6 months ahead of schedule. So this year, we invested around 10.5% of revenues. Clearly, when expanding factories, these are always plans with a 10- to 15-year horizon if you want to have a balanced growth that we constantly pursue and believe in. So around 10%, of which 4% is price mix and 6% the number of pieces. And this idea of growing around 10%, we are always pleased with that so that the brand they -- can remain exclusive both in terms of stores, we can govern quality, craftsmanship and manual excellence.

So please make sure to include in your projections our 2026 investments at around 7% of revenues. There is still some tail of investments for production of this year. But in 2027, there will be 6.5%. You can factor this in because we will see it in the coming years since there are not many commitments in terms of production. But this is the organization for the coming years. And this way, we feel pretty confident. So you see we always need to be modern in our product. We should never lose out on exclusivity remaining true luxury.

So a few days ago, we said, well, we met -- we said, let's meet for 30 minutes, end of the year, maximum focus. So we were very focused and we asked ourselves. So if we were to buy a brand in true luxury, by the way, consider we personally don't want to perform any acquisitions, mind you. But which brand would you choose? Where would you feel fulfilled? What do you feel is exclusive, well crafted, long-lasting, sustainable for the next 10 years? Well, when this question was asked, well, no one actually answered. We could not single out a single brand. This does not mean that there are no brands like that, but this means that exclusivity that we keep hammering about is still a very important topic.

Then inventory, it's perfectly aligned with our model, around 28% of revenues from the IPO onwards. But if the inventory were old or obsolete, that would mean that stores would be obsolete as well. So we went public 13 years ago. And the most important thing is that at the time, we were 85% ready-to-wear, a bit more on the women's side. It was 60-40, whereas it's split 50-50 women and men today. But we're still 85% ready-to-wear, and we do firmly believe in it. And there's not many others that do this and 15% accessories.

So going back to the idea of inventory, we do not really like evergreens. We hardly ever talk about them. So today, for instance, if you wear men's jacket, we were looking at the collection for Pitti for January this morning. So I mean, if you look at a man's jacket today, you can understand if it's last year's because it's 2 centimeters shorter, the buttons are a bit higher. So even a blue cashmere men's jacket cannot be an evergreen. It's got to be modern and contemporary at all times.

So we are living through a good time and a beautiful moment in terms of style, and this is also reflected in the quality of sales and the year is about to close in a year which we consider to be a great rebalancing for the entire fashion industry. France sales were very strong, both in quantity and quality and above all, in the style and identity of the brand. I don't know whether we're right or not. But today, we consider ourselves to be 75% ready-to-wear. And generally speaking, we consider the remaining 25% of what we do is lifestyle.

Now multi-brands and pre-collections. 10 days ago, we presented the precollection for women for Winter '26. And we received very important judgments on the creativity and modernity of our collection. And this is a major issue. So of course, this puts us in a very good position also versus our mono brands because not all of our store managers actually are extremely experienced in what we do. But when you know that for the next 6 months, you'll have in the market a contemporary collection, [indiscernible] and fresh, you start off on the right foot. I mean you know that the goods you have in the stores are very contemporary. And so we're really connected to the 400 mono brands we have -- multi-brand, sorry, we serve globally. They're very unique and prestigious.

Now for many of you and maybe especially for the younger amongst you, when you hear multi-brand, do you think of department stores, which is not necessarily the case because there are specialty stores globally that are absolutely beautiful. They have century old stories, and they are very knowledgeable about fashion. But it's quite normal. You don't know these stores. Managers in their 40s or early 50s have not grown up with these stores in mind.

Now let me say something nice about this. A couple of months ago, there was a meeting in Rome, kind of symposium, where the major European multi-brand stores met, and they asked me to go and speak at their meeting. And I told them they are particularly beautiful. They have a century old story, but their physical stores that are really unique and very beautiful do not necessarily always match the image they project online. This is quite challenging, isn't it? So they actually agreed they are prepared to improve their online image compared to the physical image of their stores. And from our side, they are now receiving right now from our company, a letter, where we thank them for the 10 years old or 20 years old relationship and the great image we built together. But also, we urge them to be more careful to what they do online.

So why is it so? Because I told them that at the end of the season, as long as the Internet just didn't exist, so at the end of each season, whatever unsold goods remained, which may be odd sizes or whatever, they were normally sold with systems which were as old as the world. So they came from stock. But as soon as the Internet arrived, even 5 pieces at a special discount even though they were the outsized out, were quite detrimental for the brand image. So everybody made a commitment.

And looking at this with a special eye, and we actually discussed this at the Board meeting this morning, we had about 500,000 customers globally, 480,000 to 500,000. And actually, no one ever complained because we believe that the actual loss of exclusivity of a brand may be caused by issues that are much more complex. We just list a few without being exhaustive in this list. So the amount of stores, the editing of the collection with price points that go all the way from the lowest to the biggest price, overcommunication, which is another key topic. And we all understand that overcommunication is an issue where we keep repeating the same thing over and over again. We would like to be less known tomorrow than we are today.

So we received very important awards. Carolina has been included by WWD in the 50 Women in Power in fashion and retail. And she was invited to a forum in New York to speak about how her creative vision and human vision is inspiring the younger generations. And it's a great honor for us to learn that. 10 days ago in London, I received a very important and special award, as I said, and the Executive Committee of the British Fashion Council has rewarded me with this award.

And actually, let me tell you what, I mean, next year, I think I'm going to travel a lot to accompany the movie all over the globe, but I'm going to learn English. I want to really try and understand whether in my 73rd year, I will be able to learn some English better than I do now. Actually, in the Laudatio that the British Fashion Council gave in the citation, they wrote this recognition goes to Brunello Cucinelli for his exceptional contribution to the world of fashion as a pioneer who has united luxury and design. I love this idea of luxury, united with design with a more responsible way of doing business. And I have to say that this truly honors us.

Now we want to leave some time for questions, but let me give you a general summary of 2025. So revenues are anywhere between plus 11% and 12% at constant exchange rate. At current exchange rates, plus 10%, which is actually a bit better than we expected at the beginning of the year. And it happens all the time when we start any year. EBIT is up. And as Moreno said, when we were talking about EBITDA in the classical way, that would mean that EBITDA in the classic sense would be 21%, which we think is a very good EBITDA. Investments stand at about 10.5%, inventory around 28%, net financial position is about EUR 200 million in this year of major investments. And we would like to keep the same dividends as usual, which is more or less 50% of profit.

So what do we expect for the future for next year? So of course, we start off with a very good atmosphere. So we expect the turnover to grow at around 10%. EBIT should be slightly improving again. Investments should be about 7%. Once again, don't say 6.5% in 2027. It's going to be 7%. We still have some investments from this year. The inventories would be steady at 28%. Net financial position is expected to improve because in the next years, investments are going to be virtually all in the commercial network, but not production facilities anymore and would like to give dividends always at around 50% of profit.

Now Riccardo, we are perfectly on time. So would you please take 5 minutes to give us a recap of our production situation. We feel we are robust. We feel we are well organized on the production front, and we feel we are quite subtle in swift reorders whenever necessary. So everything is in place.

Thank you, Brunello, and good evening, everyone. This is Riccardo speaking. I'm focusing on our industrial system here. We said it several times. It's totally Italian supply chain we have. We have our people, we have our know-how, and we actually have our own way to connect to our people. So together with our factories and tailor shops that Brunello mentioned and they are at the heart of our investment, we have 400 artisan companies that supply us. We actually have a direct relationship with these people. It's never been brokered through platforms. It's based on the quality of products and trust.

And by the way, we have nothing against platforms, mind you, but that's the way we were born. I mean it's in the nature of our behavior to have a direct relationship with our suppliers. Yes. And by the way, we are going to meet them all next week in our traditional end of year appointment. We meet them twice a year. And in October, it's a more operative meeting, and then we meet again for the end of the year. And it's a moment for us to share our vision, which, as Brunello said, is absolute luxury and absolute quality. And we want to highlight the importance of the main pillars in this work, which is high quality, hand weight, artisan skills and workers' conditions, factory workers conditions.

Yes, factory workers first. This is very important for us. So for a supply chain to be strong, we feel it's important that together, we make sure that we have beautiful, tidy, safe workplaces, work hours that are sustainable with a very clear life-work balance. We want to make sure that suitable compensation is always available. And we want to make sure there's fair profit for all the links in the chain. We believe this is an indispensable prerequisite for everything to fall into the right place. Fair profit is not an abstract concept. It's what happens artisan companies to look with peace of mind ahead at their future, and it allows their children to freely choose whether they want to continue their parents work. Yes, actually, if you see your parents are not making any profit, you wouldn't be willing to take on their business.

So this is where the robustness of our supply chain is created. And every time we meet our providers, we keep repeating our business model doesn't change. I mean if you want to produce twice as many garments, you need twice as many hands. And it's really important to invest there. It's a very simple, straightforward principle, but it's essential for us, and we feel it's the highest expression of top quality in ready-to-wear.

Also, we observed that the supply chain has become younger over the last 5 years. The average age of owners is 49 years. The average age of workers is 43 years. And this is really, really important because it means we are looking ahead at least 20 more years of these people working properly, right? Many young people have joined the business, both as owners and as workers. And the generation handover is going on pretty smoothly. This is really important for us because it's a model -- a business model based on fair profit, which makes this worth being inherited.

I'd like to talk about sustainability for a second. Now before I talk about the accolades we received, let me just remind you of the key issues for us, which rely on Human Sustainability. And we define this not just in terms of environmental sustainability, but also in economic and technological terms, cultural terms, spiritual and moral terms. So for us, sustainability begins from taking care of people and the community around us. So we believe that a company cannot be competitive unless the community that supports this is just as competitive.

And the recognitions of the -- we have received from time that is actually rewarding the whole company is there to reward our environmental performance and our sense of responsibility towards the social value of everything we do. One of the projects that contributed is the beautiful work we did with King Charles on regenerative agriculture in the Himalayas. And once again, it's a project of regenerative farming, but most importantly, it's a social project because it gives that social and economic sustainability to local families. It supports the whole local community, and it preserves the ancient know-how on cashmere. Also, they provide us with beautiful cashmere. It's small quantities, but it's absolutely perfect.

And by the way, this year, in 2025, we were able to harvest the first cashmere. And now we are selling the first 2 products in our Casa Cucinelli. And then last 2 items, we updated what we call the social return on investments. So the social value of the investments we make in our communities, and we can confirm that for every euro we invest, EUR 2.1 goes back to the communities, and this makes us proud and confirms that this measurement, although it is intangible, it is pretty concrete.

And we also confirm the positive performance of our emission intensity, meaning the emissions for every euro in revenues, and this is also quite a relevant figure, and it is in line with our targets.

Well, you see since we use the hands, we don't have the much machinery. But nevertheless, we were able to act upon it by collecting rainwater. So this is in line with the targets we set in 2019. And this completes the sustainability picture.

Thank you. Luca?

[Interpreted] Thank you, Riccardo. So now talking about sales. And in terms of sales, we can say that everything is really moving on smoothly. So the 2 main features that makes us stand out are the following: the clothing and absolute luxury for each product. So this means that what we say is not really matching with the market trends because we operate in a very specific segment.

That said, the fourth quarter for us was very lustrous in terms of results and also with a very pleasant ambience in the stores, good vibes. We think this is equally important and significant.

[Interpreted] Yes, there's a good balance, beautiful balance [Brunello adds].

[Interpreted] We know that in the fourth quarter, we will have an exchange rate effect that will be slightly more marked than in the first 9 months. But as Brunello said before, we truly believe in having constant exchange rates. In constant exchange rates, we think that we will beat the estimates and in current exchange rates in line with the 10% growth.

Now let's take a look at the channels, retail channel. We expect an excellent fourth quarter there with a growth that is in line with the one we had in the third quarter this year with a more significant comparison base. We should remind you and recall that last year, in the fourth quarter, we grew by over 15% in retail with 10% in the third quarter.

Well, all the markets are performing well. And by the end of the year, we expect a geography mix of sales that is in line with the one at the end of the 9 months. China, for us, it is an extremely healthy market, and it leads the whole Asian continent with a great double-digit growth. We want to say again what we said a few months ago: We strongly believe, staunchly believe in the fact that China has achieved quite a new balance.

These days in Rome were particularly interesting because we welcomed remarkable guests from China, distinguished guests. And in talking to them, we felt a lot of liveliness, a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. So China, excellent; and America -- as Brunello says, for us, China accounts for 13%. But in the coming years, hopefully, it will grow slightly more than Europe and America.

So that -- so we achieved the perfect balance, 33, 33 and 33 in the 3 continents. America, excellent results there, too. And excluding exchange rates, America confirms the quality of the results achieved in the 9 months, both in large cities in America and Canada. And Europe once again is very robust, thanks to the important contribution of local customers and also important contribution from tourism.

Now wholesale. Wholesale, there, we expect the fourth quarter slightly -- that it could be slightly positive just for the time -- as a result of the timing of shipping because you see the wholesale is valued in the 6-month result because that really captures the quality of the season. Well, we expect the second half to be extremely positive and an excellent end of the year.

And we recall that the growth in the wholesale channel is fully comparable because the accounts are always the same, it's like-for-like. So Brunello was saying before that in the sales campaign for the winter precollection, this is a time of important meetings with important clients, and we perceived a desire for interaction and dialogue that is really typical in moments of opportunity.

What did they say to us? They expect 2026 to be with a high concentration of clothing, ready-to-wear. They believe that in 2026, clothing will be one of the most important category.

[Interpreted] And we are very happy with that, [Brunello points out].

[Interpreted] And also the importance of new products on novelties. It is customers tend to ask for novelty, exclusive new items. Then in the top part of the brand portfolio, there's -- the old customers are seeking out unique and exclusive garments. And the last most interesting point, we were told about a constant -- the desire for receiving tips and styling tips and it is very interesting for us because we see -- and they see a great opportunity there.

And of course, the multi-brand channel has a lot of abilities in this field. For this reason, we believe that in the new year, our offering will be very much appreciated. But at the same time, we will be up to step with the market in terms of product, style and customer experience.

And our store network is extremely fresh, youthful and looked after in terms of both locations and visual merchandising because it does truly represent our lifestyle. And the most important thing, we have great staff that is able to forge long-lasting deep relations with customers because they are [indiscernible], they are very competent. And also this -- what is important is we organize this family like events with just 120 guests.

Yes, when talking about events, we are very proud to say that in 2025, too, there are new people -- we hired new people in the stores. And through their professional qualities, they truly represent -- they're truly ambassador of our fashion house in the world, and they represent another kind of wealth assets in our stores. And perhaps the best feeling for the new year is that of having a lot of trust and empathy because many customers pointed this out.

And this health -- this trust, sorry, was not at all tarnished by the Morpheus affair. And because what testifies to this is the quality of sales what happened after the report was published in the following months. And in managing this affair, what was important was the timeliness of and the way responded and the reputation was left untarnished. And we can say that the trust and the credibility of our brand has probably increased after this affair.

Let me conclude by giving you a few information on the network. In the fourth quarter, we had 3 important extensions: London, Paris and L.A.; and the openings of Macau and Shanghai. So these last events in 2025 represent the first important investments for the coming year so that we can even better qualify our network and still very exclusive in terms of numbers.

For 2026, we plan some important expansions and extensions in Geneva that we postponed from this year, then Toronto, Shanghai, Mexico City, Abu Dhabi and Juan. And then we have the conversion into concession of the first 5 locations at Neiman Marcus. So we know we have had a concession for quite a while with interesting results with Neiman and Saks and now we are open -- sorry, with Saks, and now we are opening with Neiman Marcus.

And -- so this way, we can say that Saks Global is a very important platform for the American market in 2025, too, many of the Saks Global locations translated into the best results for us. And this shows how crucial this client is. And in 2026, we aim at opening the Casa Cucinelli in Shanghai, and we are definitely looking forwards to that.

Thank you. So we already mentioned the Harrods event. Then in mid-January, as I was saying, we have the Callimachus platform, the AI new e-commerce website. We believe that this is extremely high quality, also fine to see with a hand drawing, so we like it very much.

Then the movie. Many of you were in Rome the other night with us. And we like many things about it. First thing first, the name of the company on the titles. So a couple of years traveling the world to present it and the cost of the movie have been absorbed in the past 3 years. So we will have to travel and go. But if actually you go to Tokyo, for example, and you are there for the preview, but you can do some other events. But we believe that this movie really shows our product, the style, but also the great concept of territory, production, community. As you know, Solomeo was very special to us.

So to conclude and then we open the floor for questions. It is the 48th financial statement for our company, which means that I'm not that young anymore. It is the 14th financial statement -- sorry, the 14th since our stock market listing, of which, as you know, we are very, very satisfied, although this -- despite the Morpheus event. So we believe in high-quality made in Italy.

As you know, the company is firmly rooted in the Italian territory, and it will still be there forever. There is no chance that any relocation will happen. We will stay in Italy. We are Italian. As you know, the family is at the helm of the company, and they want to stay there for the coming decades.

So at the end of the day, it has been a record-breaking year for our fashion house. We have harvested a lot, maybe even more than what we expected, but not just in terms of revenues, but also in terms of recognition and accolades, we would have never expected something like that. And there is no doubt that with all these awards, there will -- the brand will definitely benefit not just the products, but also the way we work and live.

So the movie was released yesterday in Italian cinemas, and it seems that it is ranking first in all the Italian cinemas. So the movie represents our company, represents Solomeo, my family. And we want to consider it some sort of hallmark, a hallmark to the memory and to the art. So we have the churches, we have the winery and this is the monument too. Those who will come after us will remember us because of that, too.

So we work with a very creative atmosphere. So the collection is ready, also the men's collection for Pitti. Of course, we wish you a great festive period. And also, we wish that you have time for reflections, too, because as I was saying in the past few days, I gave so many interviews, but the feeling is that we do need to rediscover ourselves and Christmas and the festive season is always one of those days.

Let's open up for -- now for Q&A. Then with some of you, we'll meet you all in Milan, so we have the usual dinners. So thank you very much. And we are very joyful, serene. And about the movie, so I decided to watch it. I decided to watch it just at the very last minute because I didn't want to change anything. Let's open for discussion.

[Interpreted] [Operator Instructions] First question will be asked by Andrea Randone of Intermonte.

[Interpreted] I have a few questions. Here they come. So I have a question on marketing first. For 2025, would you please remind us of the impact of marketing? Do you expect that percentage to remain constant? Because you did mention some initiatives for 2026, but it's always interesting to understand what we can expect. It's maybe not going to be as innovative as this year with the film, but we are really interested in trying to understand what you have in mind for next year, too.

[Interpreted] Is this your only question? Sorry, I can't hear you anymore, Mr. Randone.

So we'll take your question in the meanwhile. So we normally spend 6.2, 6.4, 6.3. In the last 3 years, we did 6.8 and 6.9, and it's going to be 6.9 again this year. And starting next year, we're going to go back to 6.4, 6.5 because, of course, the cost of the movie was quite sensible.

Then you said you have more questions?

[Interpreted] This is the operator. The line of Mr. Randone has become disconnected.

Next question will be asked from the English conference, and Chris Huang of UBS will ask it, please.

Firstly, congratulations on the film and also the very encouraging constant FX guidance you just provided. So I have 2, please. The first one, specifically on Q4. So you mentioned in the press release that you expect Q4 the retail channel to be in line with Q3 at constant exchange rates. Could you just maybe confirm what was the number you saw in Q3 because you don't disclose normally constant FX growth by channel. But if we do a rough calculation, it seems to be [indiscernible] So is that the expectation you have for Q4 retail FX neutral?

And connected to this, what are the regions and nationalities you are seeing that is driving this underlying acceleration given the tougher comp base?

Secondly, on marketing, just a follow-up to the commentary you just provided. So if I caught it correctly, you said marketing around 7% in 2025 and that budget will slightly normalize into 2026. So should we expect your EBIT margin in 2026 to see a more meaningful expansion compared to the slight improvement you are expecting in 2025?

[Interpreted] Thank you, Chris. Luca will answer this question on margin.

[Interpreted] Yes, Chris. As to retail growth in Q4, that was 14.4% at current exchange rates, which is 15% at constant exchange rates. So that's the benchmark for Q3.

As to the nationalities and geographies. As you know, we have a main proxy that actually nationalities seem to mirror the geographical countries of origin from different customers. So we confirm that by the end of the year, we expect the geographical mix will be very similar to the first 9 months. So there's beautiful continuity in all regions.

Well, Chris, as to the 6.9% marketing budget, if we do 6.4%, 6.5% next year, that's something we had expected ever since the beginning because we had budgeted the cost of the film to be split over 3 years. But as far as margins are concerned, we always try and do a bit better than the year before, but it's not a mathematical formula. I mean you don't necessarily take money from marketing and put it on margins, it's not automatic.

Because we always think that profit should be very, very healthy. I've seen it in this time as well, young people are very careful. And when I say young people, I mean people in the mid-20s that are highly educated and that have a very clear understanding of what they consider fair profit and fair compensation of workers. So being fair, being just is very, very important for people in the 20s and 30s. Thank you, Chris.

[Interpreted] The next question will be asked by Charles-Louis Scotti of Kepler Cheuvreux.

Yes. I have 2, please. The first one, could you remind us the breakdown of the 11%, 12% constant FX growth in '25 between volumes, prices and mix and also the key building blocks behind your 10% constant FX guidance for next year, and more specifically, the expected pricing contribution?

And second question regarding your e-commerce. Could you remind us the size of your e-com business and the split between DTC and wholesale? And do you have any long-term ambitions for e-commerce revenues or should we view it primarily as, I don't know, a tool to support your omnichannel clients and a discovery channel to recruit new customers?

[Interpreted] Okay. I'll take the second question first, if you don't mind. Now for the e-commerce launch, we don't have any special ambition in mind. I mean direct e-commerce is about 7% today. Globally, it's 12.5% to 13%, including multi-brands. But we don't expect big things from it right now. But what we do expect is product showcasing.

I mean people go to the stores with the pictures of what they've seen online already. So presenting products on an e-commerce website properly is extremely important, with this new system, which will help you and advise you on what to wear. So it's going to be a major image-building tool. But as far as actual sales are concerned, we don't expect much from it.

We still feel physical stores are fundamentally important, especially for men's. They need a lot of advice. And also if you want to create something special in outfit, which is just perfect for you, you need physical content and advice.

As to growth, today, volumes accounted for 3.5% to 4%. And for next year, we expect the same. We know that prices next year may be 3% to 4%, depending on the pricing of raw materials. Unfortunately, after 6 years of employment contract was renewed in Italy after 6 years of standstill. So it's pretty stable, so to say. But we do expect a good atmosphere in stores because I do think that that's something you feel.

I mean there's a good rebalancing going on. And if we altogether were brave enough to mix up the results of '21, '22, '23, '24 and '25 of luxury companies and see them all together as a 5-year plan, we would be satisfied with revenues, margins and everything because we went through 3 years of relevant growth and 2 years of rebalancing.

[Interpreted] The next question from Maria Meita of Bernstein.

I just have one and for clarification, regarding your guidance for 2026, is a 10% growth at current or constant exchange rates?

[Interpreted] Well, it's always the same target. I mean we start at the beginning of the year with a 10% target, and we've been doing this for 14 years. The impact of exchange rates has always been very, very limited. This year, it was a bit higher. Maybe next year, it's going to be similar. It swings a bit, but we'll see as we go during the year. But our order of magnitude at the beginning of the year is always the same. We want to grow it around 10% to still be extremely exclusive.

[Interpreted] [Operator Instructions] Next question will be asked by Oriana Cardani of Intesa Sanpaolo.

[Interpreted] I actually have 3 questions. First will be about the performance in Q4 of the retail channel. So what is the impact of like-for-like growth versus the [indiscernible] new openings? What's the impact of this on the double-digit growth you expect for Q4?

And the second question is about new openings, extensions, new concessions starting in 2026. What estimated impact of those on the growth you expect next year for retail?

And third question is about the beautiful docu film you just presented and -- in Rome on December 4. So what kind of distribution do you envisage for the film outside Italy? Is it going to be circulated to America and Asia? Is it going to be accompanied by special events?

[Interpreted] So as far as the contribution of new openings and the retail growth, this year was very beautifully balanced between growth on the comparable basis and the new openings or expansion. Then as to the value of concession in 2026, you, Oriana, should consider that when they are performed during the year, the gap between wholesale and retail is offset each other because on the one hand, the wholesale is for the whole -- it's true that the retail value is higher than the wholesale, but over time, distribution basically translates in a 0 effect in the first year. There will be a shift from wholesale to retail.

Then as for the movie, Oriana, we will have loads of events, Japan, America, across the board. Well, a last for me, but there's also Carolina, Riccardo, they will be going there, too. But we are very pleased that the feedback was particularly pleasing because that's the name of the brands and the titles. So the London prize for the style because you see the awards we received in London was not for the product, but for the whole lifestyle, putting together luxury and design. So that's a very strong message.

Then the movie. So this seems to augur well. But I've always thought that when you stop wanting to travel, then you have to stop. So now that young CEOs will be traveling more than me. You see, I went to the premier in Rome the other night, and I came back at 3 in the morning. So I was wondering, God, I wonder if I'd be awake for the call.

But the idea, Oriana, is that the movie was directed by a man with a soul. Thank God, you see, it bears the name of the brand, and they say that it can be very successful abroad, too. So I would -- as I keep saying, Oriana, tomorrow, we should be known better -- sorry, less than today. So we only have 500,000 customers at the end of the day. Thank you, Oriana.

[Interpreted] [Operator Instructions] So there are no further questions.

[Interpreted] Very well. So thank you. Thank you very much, and best wishes for the festive seasons. We will meet many of you in Milan tomorrow. And hopefully, you will spend some nice holidays, but be confident because high-quality products will always have -- always be special. What really matters is to find the skilled hands. Thank you, and have a great festive season.

[Interpreted] The conference call has ended. You can now disconnect your phones. Thank you.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]