Calé: S. Levi

CALÉ

INTERVIEW WITH SILVIO LEVI, CEO CALÉ

EXPORT MAGAZINE: Your company operates in various directions: distributor, brand owner and more. In more recent years, what have been the most significant variations, in both these areas? SILVIO LEVI: In recent years, Calé has substantially modified its structure and activities, always keeping its interest and its competence in Artistic Perfumery at the centre. The corporate website has been renewed and proposes the new graphics of the logo. In addition to progressive optimization of the portfolio of brands with exclusive distribution for Italy, it has greatly boosted the sector of Direct Retail, with two Creed boutiques, one in Milan and the other in Rome, and three Creed corners in the Rinascente department stores in Milan, Rome and Florence, the opening of the Histoires de Parfums

in sTeP WiTh The Times and aLWaYs faiThfuL To The VaLues of arTisTic PerfumerY

flagship store in Milan and developing the proprietary multi-brand retail project which has taken the name of Fragrans in fabula and which now has two points of sale in Milan and a corner in the Rinascente department store in Via Tritone in Rome. Another sector developed has been that of e-commerce with the sites of Creed (https:// creedboutiqueitalia.com), Histoires de Parfums (https:// it.histoiresdeparfums.com/it) or that of the Fragrans in fabula stores (https://fragransinfabula.com/). In addition there is the brand of Calé Fragranze d’Autore which has expanded the range with the launch of the thirteenth fragrance, Archilibrium, dedicated to Organic Architecture (https://it.calefragranzedautore.com/). Other foreign markets have been opened including, more recently, Romania where the Calé Fragranze d’Autore fragrances were chosen for the launch of the new Range Rover Sport. In 2021, a limited edition of SottoSopra was released with an exclusive bronze cap made by the artist Marco Ceroni. The connection with other arts has continued, developing the musical part, again with the composer Philip Abussi, going int the world of multidimensional hexanaural sound and into the world of virtual reality in collaboration with Filmare Group in two projects related to the fragrances Roboris and Liberamente, which were proposed to professionals and the public at Esxence 2022 (https:// it.calefragranzedautore.com/page/headphones-on ) Particular commitment was then dedicated to the creation of the Research Centre essencional (https://www. essencional.com/en/) which is increasingly taking on a role of reference for the sector with its screening services of what is published on the Internet and which is filtered and evaluated to be put at the disposal of professionals and passionate lovers of perfumes every week, to which are added the articles and original interviews produced by the members of the Research Centre.

EM: Following important changes on the market, have your strategies changed as a consequence? SL: It is certain that today we have to face situations that until a few years ago were not particular involved in our market. I am referring of course to investment funds and the multinationals which have carried out an intense

Creed Boutique, Rome

purchasing campaign, taking the control of many main independent benchmarks in our sector. A great deal is changing in the identity of the sector, the rhythms are becoming more frenetic and sudden changes are taking place in international distribution. Having said this, we are trying to stay as faithful as possible so that the marvellous added value of Artistic Perfumery can be increasingly recognized and appreciated, for its originality, uniqueness and artistry. This is why we are working more and more on communication, training, micro and macro events, the social networks, in-store experiential and, possibly, in e-commerce, to make more comprehensible and enjoyable the clear difference that there can be in the sensory and emotive perception of olfactory creations born to tell stories, express sensations and particular passions, which have not been “blunted” to be liked by many people, but which proudly flaunt their uniqueness and difference from the trends followed by the mass-tige sector. In our Fragrans in fabula boutiques, we have activated a series of activities for the public in which we propose thematic narrative paths, or Fabulae, with the help of fragrances of different brands to really allow people to understand how to enjoy the artistic message of certain compositions, whether they then choose to purchase them or not. The reactions of the public are really positive and the request to follow our Fabulae each month is a source of great pride for my staff and I.

EM: Italy is considered and is one of the leading countries in the sector of artistic perfumery. What are the main reasons for this? SL: I think I am probably one of the people who has the deepest knowledge of this sector, Calé was founded in 1955 and I think that to all effects and purposes it is the distributor of artistic perfumery that can boast of the longest experience, not only in Italy, but in the world. Italy, as is often the case, has turned its potential limits into unique added value. We are one of the most recently constituted nations in Europe and we still have very much alive in our social fabric the particularities that today we define regional, but which date back to kingdoms, duchies and marquisates with influences from other nationals that have made them totally unique and original, full of contradictions, art, history and customs. In 1994, according to the then UNIPRO, today Cosmetica Italia, we had over 15,000 companies active in the perfumery sector. This is an enormous number with respect to the population, which no other country in the world has

Creed Boutique, Milan

ever even approached, I think. This is why we have had the great advantage of being able to choose from these 2.5% of points of sale, on average in city centres, owners of the walls and family-run businesses, with a high-spending and cosmopolitan basin of users, who overall have allowed us to operate with about 350 points of sale to create a distribution network that can receive and develop the offer of Artistic Perfumery, step by step. Today the companies active in the general Italian Beauty Business are practically less than one-third of those active in 1994, but the display surface areas is not any the less, on the contrary. Many small independent perfumeries have been absorbed by chains and more and more large groups of international retail are operating in the mass-tige sector. The points of sale that today have made the proposal of Artistic Perfumery a characterizing element, are today reduced to about 220-250 and represent less than 5% of the total of points of sale in business. This is why our distribution is considered niche, even though it has more retailers than in any other European or non-European country. In addition to all this, there is our inclination to appreciate beauty in all of its meanings which makes us, at least in art, attentive consumers ready to “sniff out” new trends at their beginnings and to be a marvellous laboratory of Research and Development which we could define “open source,” borrowing a term from Information Technology.

EM: Italian brands and international brands. Independent brands and brands that belong to some important multinational corporations? Has a balance been reached over time between these two worlds or is each one taking different paths? SL: As I said, the scene is becoming very complicated. I am completely certain that Artistic Perfumery has very great possibilities of development at international level. To date it is far from having reached 2% of impact on the total Beauty turnover in the vast majority of continents and nations and the demand can only increase, at the same pace as the development of the distribution of mass and mass-tige perfumery, which will give new clients every day to Artistic Perfumery. The fact, however, that the latter has had for many years periods of growth and has shown excellent resilience, does not necessarily make it suitable for sudden development, entrusting distribution and promotion to specialized and organized structured of mass-tige, but in general, the recent acquisitions have

to a large extent modified the marketing strategies of the brands, deeming them on average capable of competing on the global market and applying to them rules and strategies which would not be suitable for brands that until that time had tried to satisfy a demand which we can consider elitist and very attentive to the originality and quality. Unfortunately the very high risk is that the creativity of these proposals will undergo strong limits. Having said this, it is however also obvious how the number of new niche brands has grown, often supported by perfumers with a very noble pedigree, who want, after years of career dedicated to mass-tige, to return to be able to dedicate themselves to the real art of composition and creation of a perfumery that wants to be considered an Art in the same way as many other expressions of the human intellect such as music, painting, poetry, sculpture and photography. Quite a few of these brands are Italian brands which are allowing Italian perfumery to experience a second Renaissance with a great idea of fine creativity and courage. It will not be easy for these brands to reach the positioning and reputation of those that have attracted the interest of the big investors and multinational corporations, but I would say that there is a very lively and fair competition under way and Esxence is an obvious expression of this with the hundreds of exhibiting brands present. In conclusion, we are still far from having found a balance and mutual respect, to simplify, a sort of armistice between Esxence and Cosmoprof, which would be advantageous for both sectors, but I would say that very important steps have been taken in this direction and I hope that the various professionals involved and with whom I have had the occasion to interact over the past few years, are increasingly aware that synergies are far more profitable than competition. The cake is huge and is becoming bigger and bigger and would allow the survival and development of many figures that are different from one another but which in actual fact are interdependent on condition that each one protects their principles and characteristics.

EM: Will you be at Cannes with your proprietary brands, as usual? SL: Yes, of course. We will be there with Calé Fragranze d’Autore at a new address, 12, Boulevard de la Croisette 12, together with other brands, mostly Italian. We will be presenting the new fragrance Archilibrium which aims to be a dedication to Organic Architecture of which Frank Lloyd Wright was a leader. Integration between anthropic buildings and Nature, in dialogue and mutual respect. Going into a wood and discovering that it holds a mansion where people live that does not have a negative impact on the nature surrounding it. It will also have its sonorous expression with an original piece by the

Histoires de Parfums, Milan Fragrans in fabula, via Madonnina 17 Milan

Fragrans in fabula, corso Magenta 22 Milan

musician Philip Abussi. Cannes and the TFWA remain an extremely interesting rendezvous, where different souls of the beauty business coexist and measure up with one another and which for me and essencional.com is an observatory of considerable interest, even if it still does not have a specific section dedicated to Artistic Perfumery.

EM: What are the objectives you are setting yourself in this 2022 which seems to be showing positive signs of recovery? SL: This year, which appears fairly complex and afflicted by quite a few enormous problems, will require flexibility, intelligence and skill to keep what it has been possible to obtain for the time being, i.e. to return to the parameters of 2019 and exceed them. We can probably expect a roller-coaster ride, due to the difficulties in finding raw materials, due to the different crises that are looming ahead , rising costs and energy problems. The need for the acquisitions that took place in the pandemic to have to recover and respect the plans of return on investment must not be underestimated. We will be seeing a strong tendency towards normalization, to not wanting to give support to “anomalous” distributions and the complex management that have so far guaranteed success for the boldest and most futuristic proposals in Artistic Perfumery and we risk creating great confusion in consumers concerning the identity of Artistic Perfumery. On the other hand, the opportunities are certainly there to see more and more new figures in the field. It is important that the process of creation of small and medium-sized specialized networks of distribution, to which Esxence has given a boost in the past 12 years at international level, does not stop and that new Asian and African markets can give opportunities to distribution and retail, specifically dedicated to Artistic Perfumery which, as I always take the occasion to repeat, is effectively the Research and Development of mass-tige which should do everything not to suffocate its creativity because in the medium-long term it will be precisely the mass-tige that will draw the greatest benefits.