The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1965–2025
Benetton's colourful sweaters conquered the world — then €280M in losses buried them
Benetton ranked 75th in global brands in 2000. By 2025, it had lost €280M in two reported years and was closing 418 stores.
Benetton Group · Edizione · 2024-05-25
What happened
Benetton was founded in 1965 by Luciano and Giuliana Benetton in Ponzano Veneto, Italy. The brand became an icon of the 1980s and 1990s with colourful knitwear and provocative advertising campaigns built around photographer Oliviero Toscani's social-issue images. In 2000, Benetton ranked 75th in Interbrand's best global brands list.
By 2002, Benetton had dropped out of the global top 100 entirely. In 2012, the group was delisted from the stock exchange and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Benetton family's holding company Edizione. The brand that had conquered the world was quietly retreating.
In 2017, Benetton posted a loss of €180 million. Luciano Benetton, then 83, returned from retirement as executive chairman to save the business. In May 2024, he announced a further loss of €100 million and publicly accused CEO Massimo Renon and other executives of mismanagement. In 2025, it was announced that more than 418 Benetton stores would close.
Why it happened
- Benetton's provocative advertising stopped working in the 2000s — Toscani's shock campaigns had defined the brand, and without them Benetton had no clear identity or message for a new generation.
- Fast fashion (Zara, H&M, Uniqlo) ate Benetton's market with quicker supply chains and lower prices — Benetton's vertically integrated Italian factories could not compete on speed or cost.
- The Benetton family's governance structure was too insular — despite losing €180M in 2017, the board waited until 2024 to change direction, and the founder had to intervene personally at age 83.
The lesson
A brand built on shock advertising is only as durable as the next campaign. Benetton defined the 90s with imagery, but when the shock wore off, it had no product story to fall back on.
Aftermath
Benetton continues to operate under the Benetton family's Edizione holding company with a new CEO and president appointed in 2024. By 2025, 180 of the planned 418 store closures had already been completed. The brand that once ranked among the world's strongest has not been in the Interbrand top 100 for more than 20 years. Luciano Benetton remains involved but has made clear that the losses he returned to fix have only grown deeper.
Sources
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