- Chantal Fernandez
Yoox Net-a-Porter Group CEO Steps Down
Yoox Co-Founder Federico Marchetti is relinquishing the role as owner Richemont struggles to make the online retail group, which includes Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter, profitable.
MILAN, Italy — Yoox Net-a-Porter Chief Executive Officer Federico Marchetti is stepping down from his position at the Richemont-owned luxury e-commerce retailer, according to an internal document viewed by BoF. A successor has not been announced.
Marchetti will remain chairman of the company, which he has led first as off-season fashion retailer Yoox since it launched in 2000, and then after it merged with women’s fashion site Net-a-Porter in 2015. Richemont, previously a controlling investor, fully acquired the business in May 2018 in the hopes of beefing up its e-commerce bonafides. It was then valued at €5.3 billion (about $5.9 billion).
However, the company has struggled in recent years, losing money for Richemont and falling short of a €4 billion revenue target this year, BoF reported in November. In 2019, a technology and logistics platform migration that cost hundreds of millions of dollars made elements of YNAP-owned off-price site The Outnet more difficult for shoppers to use and has yet to be completed. In its fiscal report for the year ending March 2019, Richemont registered a €165 million ($182.3 million) write-down of YNAP. The group also reported its weakest profit margin in more than a decade.