Damiani sees dolce vita in the Gulf

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Guido Damiani joined the business in 1994.

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Damiani’s latest store in Beverly Hills.

Italy's largest jeweller has seen its stock slide since listing in Milan last year, but CEO Guido Damiani is hoping the Gulf's super rich appetite for luxury bodes well for future business.

Shares in his luxury jewellery firm may have slumped by 70 percent since the beginning of the year but Guido Damiani has managed to retain his sense of humour.

The president and CEO of Damiani SpA, the biggest selling jeweller in Italy, insists he is not worried when asked about the dismal performance of its shares on the Milan stock exchange.

"The value of the jewellery in our inventory is higher than the value of our market cap, so it doesn't make any sense.

"Maybe you should suggest to your readers, it's a good investment and very cheap," he says with a laugh.

But while Damiani makes light of the gloom surrounding the plight of the company's shares, he is serious about his company's growth plans for the Gulf, a key emerging market for the family-run firm. Jewellery sales in the GCC are estimated to account for around 10 percent of global sales, while according to the World Gold Council the UAE has one of the largest per capita rates of gold jewellery consumption in the world.

Super-wealthy Gulf consumers' appetite for luxury goods shows little sign of diminishing, despite global projections showing the market is likely to slip between 3 percent and 7 percent in 2009, to between $214.9bn to $224.13bn in sales, according to a new study by consultants Bain & Co.

On the back of the success of Damiani's existing boutique in the Burjuman Centre, Dubai, it is opening a second store in Dubai Mall this week.

It will further boost its presence in the Gulf with new stores planned for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Qatar within the next six months and Abu Dhabi in 2009.

Damiani has already overseen the opening of a boutique in Thuraya Mall in Kuwait City in March.

Having flown into Dubai in the morning for a two day visit, by the time we meet in the afternoon, Damiani has already visited both the Burjuman boutique and the new outlet.

And despite the affects of jetlag and the headache of delays to the opening of Dubai Mall, Damiani says he is "very excited".

"For us, the Middle East is quite a new market but we believe it will be one of our best markets," he says. "We just opened in Dubai last year and will double next month. In the area we are quite new even though as a company we are 84 years old and have a long tradition.

"Dubai Mall is a great mall, it's a fantastic place and I believe it will be a very successful place as it looks great. All the best brands are there and our location is good."

The next day he will speak at the prestigious Leaders in Luxury conference on celebrity branding, a subject close to his heart. Hollywood star Sharon Stone is the latest in a string of famous names to be the face of the brand.

Damiani was founded in 1924 by the current CEO's grandfather, Enrico Grassi Damiani, in Valenza, a small town in the north west of Italy, where according to Damiani "everybody is in the jewellery business". Enrico began designing and producing jewellery, drawing his influences from Art Deco styles.

With the company quickly becoming renowned throughout Italy, Enrico's son Damiano Grassi Damiani took the company over, introducing technical innovations and new marketing and advertising strategies.

Leaving behind a successful career in the real estate sector, Guido Damiani joined the family business in 1994, initially taking care of the sales network in Italy and marketing.

Two years later he took charge of the whole company and today he is president and CEO, working alongside his siblings, Giorgio and Silvia, together with their mother Gabriella.

Now, the biggest selling jeweller in Italy, Damiani has expanded its operations overseas and has 54 outlets in over 50 countries worldwide.

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