Pal Zileri has seen a strong revival post-pandemic and it has plans for an even stronger one with the Mayhoola-owned company targeting a doubling of its turnover in just a few years.

This will be partly achieved by further expansion in the UK, a country that’s seen as so important to the brand, it’s the ‘kick-off’ market for its ambitious growth plan.

Fashionnetwork.com spoke to its CEO Leo Scordo and its marketing director Mariarosaria Lombardi — who were in London with the wider team — about what’s on the agenda and just why the British market is key.

But first, some background. Pal Zileri was named after the Palladio-designed Palazzo Valeri in its hometown, Vicenza, which is just 40 miles from Venice (also an important ‘inspiration’ city for the label).

It began life as a manufacturer, later moving into branded, upscale ready-to-wear and riding the wave of the 1980s and 1990s suits boom to become one of what Scordo refers to as the ‘Mangnifient Four’ of Italian menswear specialists (along with Ermenegildo Zegna, Corneliani and Canali).

The company realised earlier than many that menswear was becoming more relaxed and the golden age of the suit was at an end.

It has worked extensively on its collections, without losing sight of its brand DNA, to create a more relaxed edge and now feels it has an offer that’s strongly tailored to the ‘contemporary’ customer.

Its three-year plan (covering 2025-27) aims to use that work to radically increase its turnover. As well as the UK, it’s targeting countries like France and the Benelux nations, plus Eastern Europe and South Korea. 

Scordo has talked of opening stores in major cities such as London, Paris and Rome, as well as continuing its strong presence in department stores such as Harrods, El Corte Inglès, Harvey Nichols and Saks. Plus there are concession in Printemps, Paris, and two corners in Hong Kong’s Sogo on the menu.

The CEO, who’d previously worked at Zegna and saw the challenges the big four were facing as men’s tastes evolved, clearly has huge ambitions for the label.

Fashionnetwork.com: How radical has the brand makeover been and where does that position you in today’s market?

Leo Scordo: We started with the Pal Zileri brand bringing a strong heritage tailoring but for 30% of the offer we now dress men in knitwear, jersey, sport trousers, outerwear. What we want to be is an accessible lifestyle brand. And I mean ‘accessible’ and ‘lifestyle’. In the premium market you have a lot of successful Italian brands but it’s difficult to find a ‘lifestyle’ brand in the Italian sector, which makes us quite unique. We have a premium positioning in the market so we’re accessible to an average customer, an international customer who is not a fashion victim but is fashion-conscious. Someone who is modern, contemporary, active, travelling a lot. 

We are an ‘effortless’ brand. What I mean by that is that ‘sartorial’ does not belong exclusively to suits, because a shirt, denim, T-shirts can be sartorial. So we want elegance transferred to all categories. 

FN: So is ‘sartorial’ your product development starting point?

LS: Pal Zileri is a story of colours, of shapes because our heritage is Palladio, the architect, so for us shapes and colours are important things, which is different from our competitors. Our corporate colour is Laguna Green, which is the colour of the water in Venice. 

FN: Apart from the big future growth plan, you’ve already made a lot of changes at the label in relation to the product. How has this been received so far?

LS: The reaction of our markets has been very very positive. Last year the company went extremely well so all the team has been challenged to develop a three-year growth plan to double the size of the company. It’s not a huge company so there’s a market opportunity. At retail today we do about €50 million-€55 million.

FN: Why is the UK your starting point for this major growth drive?

LS: I’m here with all the team because we had to decide, apart from Italy, where to start from with this plan and we absolutely believe that the UK is the market to start. In e-commerce it has ranked number one for four years. Also, we do very nice business with Harrods, they’re very happy and said the more we ship the more they sell! We do very nice business with Harvey Nichols as well. 

So we decided to start here and we are looking for a shop in London. We used to have a shop here on New Bond Street and that will probably be the area that we’re looking in, or maybe a new area — we’re doing a lot of walking! We want to start building this market in a bigger way. 

FN: Is the UK’s importance just about sales?

LS: No. The UK is big for us in numbers but if you see it from a non-British person like me, when I’m not looking at Italian brands, I normally look at UK brands because they bring a more modern allure. We are Italian, we know everything about that, so what is the next step? To be more contemporary and modern and to me that means looking at British brands. I’ve been influenced by Savile Row tailors and Paul Smith in the past, there is an experimental thing that can be very interesting.

FN: Pre-Brexit, the UK was always seen as the gateway to the US for European brands (and vice versa). Has this changed?

Mariarosaria Lombardi: People haven’t changed, even with the [extra Brexit] duties. People want the same things they wanted before. This is the only country that buys the full look, they have a taste for Italian style. and it’s not just about English people it’s about all the people from around the world coming here. This compares to what’s happening in Italy which is much more local. 

FN: So the UK is still a global hub?

LS: Yes. Look at e-commerce. The UK accounts for about 35-40%, and if you add the Americans, who very much look at the UK, that adds up to about 70%. If you want a place to jump into the US, it’s not from Italy, it’s from the UK. It has a heritage in menswear.

FN: I assume London is key to this?

LS: Yes. In Europe this is the only city I can compare to New York, there is not any other city in all Europe. Paris is romantic, beautiful. But Paris is the ‘capital of France’, London is more. London is London and changes very fast.

FN: I suppose that also makes it culturally influential?

LS: If you want [to work with] a celebrity like a soccer player or singer who is known all around Europe you have to go for a British one, whereas a French or Italian one tends to be known more in France or Italy. 

FN: But one key question — doubling your turnover in just a few years, that’s a huge task. What are the biggest opportunities?

LS: E-commerce today is around 5% or 6%, which is small. We’re purely menswear so we don’t sell bags — it’s an opportunity for us. We don’t do eyewear for now which is an option, we don’t do underwear. We don’t do generally those categories that are done under licence, we don’t do jewellery. 

There’s huge potential by the number of doors. Today we’re distributed in about 350 wholesale. It’s very easy to double the number of those doors because that’s what the company used to have before Covid.

FN: And of course, marketing will be key?

LS: Some customers still buy from us only historical categories like jackets. We have to educate them to buy the full collection. We have to be ambassadors for our brand, we have to explain, otherwise people will come once a season to the showroom and say ‘what a beautiful collection’ but just look at the book of suits. [That means] nothing will change. Marketing, PR, communication will be key, and is a big part of the plan because the big job of the collection — the product, the positioning — we did already.