Italian eyewear company Safilo Group has received the first of three compensation payments from French luxury conglomerate Kering for the early termination of their Gucci eyewear license agreement, as announced last September.
As part of the move to internalise most of its eyewear business, Kering will terminate the Gucci license agreement by end December 2016 and pay Safilo €90 million in three equal instalments. The first €30 million was paid yesterday (12 January), with the second and third to follow in December 2016 and September 2018 respectively.
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The two groups have also finalised the strategic product partnership agreement for the development and manufacture of Gucci eyewear products by Safilo. The contract will be for four years, from January 2017 until December 2020, and is renewable upon mutual agreement. Product development, industrialisation and prototyping of the 2017 collections will start in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Besides Gucci, Kering’s partnership with Safilo includes eyewear licenses for Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen. In order to optimise the profitability and the strategic relevance of its brand portfolio going forward, Safilo has also agreed to terminate the remaining licenses on 30 June 2015.
