Benetton Targets South America

Italian retailer Benetton has plans to vigorously expand in Latin America in the next two years, since of the 100 million garments the company sells annually only one million are purchased in the region.

"Latin America only represents 1% of our sales, but as the economy stabilizes and begins picking up we could in a few years reach 3 million garments, with Chile as one of the leading countries given its stability", explained Luciano Benetton.

The Benetton family considered the third richest in Italy worth € 4,5 billion and has a distribution network of 5,000 outlets in 120 different countries (15 of them Chile), most of which work on a franchise system with standard models. In spite of the recession, profits in 2003 reached € 120 million.