Louis Vuitton started noticing Romania 3-4 years ago, when the company's officials became aware of the rising number of Romanians buying the brand's products from stores abroad, and now, several days after the opening of its first store in Romania, the brand is already mulling expansion, as the market has "extraordinary" potential, Yves Carcelle, president of Louis Vuitton, told Ziarul Financiar.
"Ten years ago, nobody in the luxury goods industry gave a penny about southern Europe, and now this area is booming," says Carcelle.
The rising volume of purchases Romanians made abroad put Bucharest on Louis Vuitton's map, but, once the decision to invest had been made, the real problem emerged: location. "In a city like Bucharest, which has been more or less destroyed compared with what it looked like before the second world war, the big question for a luxury group wanting to open a store is where?," says Carcelle. "In this context, hotels are the best and most secure solution as they offer a certain environment and guarantee traffic, so we chose the Marriott", said Carcelle.
The Louis Vuitton top official says the store is the first step towards the Marriott shopping gallery being turned into a luxury one and offers the example of some other countries where pioneering Louis Vuitton was followed by other names in the luxury goods industry.
Yves Carcelle is confident Romania will become an important market for Louis Vuitton, but "We haven't brought our ready-to-wear collections or our watches, yet, because we want to see how the market develops, but also because our strategy is to exhibit them to the best of out abilities," says Carcelle.
He said that, should everything go well, the group would consider opening a second store as it has done in many capitals of the world.
The brand has 401 stores worldwide and will open another 15 this ye
