Shake-up at Trussardi, Sources Say Board and CEO Resign
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MILAN — Trussardi is going through yet another reorganization, according to sources, and the first consequence is the resignation of the entire board of directors. Accordingly, chief executive officer Sebastian Suhl is no longer in charge.
According to Milan-based market sources, 3X Capital, a restructuring firm based in Bergamo, also home to Trussardi, has been consulting with Italian independent asset management company QuattroR, which took a controlling stake in the Italian fashion brand in 2019.
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Sources believe the goal is to restructure Trussardi for a potential sale. Three parties have expressed an interest in the company, whose employees have been put in “cassa integrazione,” a government-funded redundancy pay since February that is expected to extend until the end of April.
Trussardi, through a range of sub-branches, is said to have an aggregated debt of 50 million euros with banks and suppliers. QuattroR had no comment.
Suhl joined Trussardi at the end of October 2020. He was previously managing director of global markets at Valentino, and before that, he was CEO of Marc Jacobs International. He also formerly worked at Givenchy and Prada Group.
A luxury consultant said the current macroeconomic context “is not rewarding for companies that are placed in the medium price range,” and that Trussardi is “in the midst of a turnaround and its positioning has always been quite complex.”
Suhl appointed Serhat Işık and Benjamin A. Huseby as creative directors of the brand in May 2021. Işık and Huseby design their own label, the Berlin-based GmbH, launched in 2016, and are known for their commitment to inclusivity and sustainability and their socially engaged perspective.
Their designs have created some buzz, attracting the likes of Dua Lipa, Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber, but production and distribution have gone through some hurdles, said a well-placed source. They are still heading the design team at the moment.
Trussardi’s fragrance, home and children’s licenses are said to be strong contributors to the business, which has long depended on leather goods. Trussardi was originally a glove-maker.
Suhl believed the designers’ talent would be able to reflect a young and more accessible Trussardi. He revisited the brand’s storied greyhound logo, first introduced in 1973, and slashed the previous complex set of multiple Trussardi brands to focus on the single signature label.
Trussardi did not have a creative director since Gaia Trussardi’s exit in 2018. She succeeded the likes of Umit Benan Sahin and Milan Vukmirovic.
Nicola Trussardi, who propelled the family’s business in the ’80 and ‘90s, died in 1999 in a car accident. His daughters, Gaia and Beatrice, are no longer involved in the company, while his son Tomaso is a strategic adviser of the house.
Suhl spearheaded the restructuring of Palazzo Trussardi, located close to the storied La Scala theater in Milan, which reopened in November as “a lifestyle hub of fashion, food and culture,” Suhl said at the time.
The building was first opened by Nicola Trussardi in 1996 as one of the first concept stores in the world, merging fashion retail with food, while also serving as an exhibition space for artists and architects.
The palazzo was entirely redesigned by a collaborative team of architects, artists and designers: the Berlin-based architecture studio Bplus.xyz together with Thorben Gröbel.
It houses two dining experiences in collaboration with Michelin-starred chef Giancarlo Perbellini: The café and the restaurant, a contemporary take on the traditional Italian osteria.
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