Table of Contents
Gucci lifestyle and luxury brand has a very dark family drama tale. Yes at one point in time, Gucci Family Drama killed the Gucci business empire.
In the end, Gucci founders had nothing in their hands. Gucci’s story is a great example of the saying
First Generation Build
Second Generation Expands
Third Generation Destroys
Gucci’s story starts with Guccio Gucci, an Italian who came to London after their family business went bankrupt. Then at the age of 18, Guccio Gucci started working in the expensive Motel Royal Savoy as a helper.
There he notices the wealthy people’s appearance. He used to be a great observer. Then he noticed that all the super-rich people were obsessed with expensive bags, wallets, purses, and other leather goods.
So, Guccio Gucci planned to manufacture leather goods in the future. To learn more about leather goods, Gucci went to work at the Railway station. There he used to lift the pieces of luggage of people.
There he got the opportunity to feel the expensive leather goods of the wealthy people. So, he got the idea about the leather products.
At one point in time, Guccio Gucci was obsessed with leather goods. So, finally, he went to work in a leather company where he used to understand the making of leather goods.
Gucci’s history has a very humble beginning. The man desires to make leather goods to become rich. In the end, this humble beginning became the pathetic end of the Gucci Brand.
Gucci Founder dream to reality
After all the years of research and hard work. Guccio Gucci had saved enough money to open his first store in 1921.
He opened a store in Italy where he used to sell leather items like handbags, wallets, and other stuff. Initially Gucci brand used to import the material from the third-party manufacturer.
By then, Guccio Gucci was the father of 4 children. His family consists of 3 sons Vasco, Rodolfo, and Aldo. And had a daughter named Grimaldo.
However, running a new business was not easy for the Guccio Gucci. Many times he used to be in huge debt. There was a time when his son-in-law saved the shop by taking a loan.
Later, his son went on to expand his Gucci brand. In 1950, Gucci had its second store in Milan. However, Guccio Gucci was not impressed with the idea of expansion. Because it used to pile up the losses. So, Guccio always used to be anxious about the future of the brand.
Then in 1953, Gucci Sons went on to open their store in the US as well. At this point, Guccio was under great stress and debt. Due to his son’s expansion, he became too weak and brittle. Unfortunately, he passed away the same year after the launch of its third store in the USA.
Gucci Family Drama: The Beginning
Gucci family drama was set on fire after the death of Gucci founder Guccio Gucci. As he did not give any kind of share to his daugher in his will. However, his son-in-law helped financially many times and the brand saved from his loans.
So, Guccio’s daugher Grimaldo was furious about the will. Then there used to be frequent quarrels in the Gucci family about the shares. Finally, her daughter did not get anything out of Gucci’s business. It’s pathetic.
Her cursing might have destroyed the family business of Gucci in the end.
Second Generation Gucci Founders business
As the saying second generation will expand the business. Yes, according to the saying, Gucci sons Vasco, Rodolfo, and Aldo started expanding Gucci stores.
Even they started their manufacturing centers. Gradually they started to extract the reach of middle-class people. Every product was expensive and always had a great feel and finish to the product.
By then, the Gucci brand had become the lifestyle brand of the wealthy. In 1975, Gucci stepped into perfume products as well. It was a great success for the brand and it gave huge turnover to the company.
Unfortunately, one Gucci son Vasco passed away. So, now Gucci’s two sons Also and Rodlfo had 50% shares each.
As the family tree went to the third generation. Where Aldo had 3 sons Paolo, Giorgio, and Roberto. Then his shares went on to their sons. But Paolo had the least share in the Gucci business.
However, until then Rodolfo had his 50% of the share. He was reluctant to give his share to his son Maurizio because of his affair with Patrizia Reggiani. As Rodlolfo knew Patrizia was a gold digger and he just wanted to enjoy the wealth of the Gucci family.
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Third Generation Gucci Family Drama destroyed the brand
Now Aldo’s third generation was running the brand without any kind of direction and vision. Even they licensed their product with the local departmental stores.
As a result, fake Gucci bags started appearing on the streets of the US. Until then, the Gucci brand was reachable to wealthy people.
But now all the fake products were selling on the streets and exclusive designs of the Gucci products were started appearing in the small stores as well.
Frequent Gucci family drama started their brand value gradually faded away. However, Rodolfo still had control over the company with 50% of the ownership.
Even he passed away and then his 50% shares were transferred to his son Maurizio. Until his death, Rodolfo did not give his shares because of his son’s wife Patrizia Reggiani.
Maurizio was well educated and had a good business sense. He knew that third-party licensing of the Gucci brand would kill the company. So, with his control over the company, he canceled the licensing business.
As a result, the income generated from the licensing went nill. Even people lost faith in the brand because of frequently changing business models. So, Gucci had to face a lot of criticism from its customers and had to face losses of over $100 million.
Now Aldo son of Paolo who had the least share in the business had frequent quarrels. Gucci family drama took dark turns in the future.
Paolo Gucci was frustrated with the least shareholding. So, he decided to start his brand under his name “Paulo Gucci”. However, the Gucci family was not ready to accept the plan.
Then Paulo Gucci went to the court to start the new company. Gucci family had great power and Paulo could never win over Gucci’s Superpower.
However, Paolo is stubborn and he spends money on court and a lawyer to win the deal. Finally, he won the case in court and started his brand Paulo Gucci. He spent over $8 million in the court for the victory.
Soon his brand came to market, but all his designs were too bad to purchase. Even customers were not happy with the designs. All thought the brand lost its design sense.
Even Paolo’s daughter accepted that his father’s designs were too ugly. So, Paulo could not tolerate the losses and the failure simultaneously.
Finally, in 1988, he sold his 3.3% of Gucci Share for $40 million to InvestCorp company. So Paolo became too extravagant and lost his fortune. All his business went to losses and he became bankrupt in 1993. By then he had a debt of over $90 million.
Ultimately, Paolo Gucci was the destroyer of the Gucci brand from the third generation.
Maurizio Gucci Business Plan
Maurizio predicted the future of Gucci’s business. So, he thought if the Gucci shares were in family members’ hands, then the Gucci business would not last for even a decade.
So, he convinced all his cousins Gitogio Gucci and Roberto Gucci to sell their shares to Investcorp. Now, InvestCorp has 50% of Gucci shares.
Now, the Gucci brand could have new branding from InvestCorp. Then Gucci hired a Designer head, Dawn Mello. From this guidance and advice, Gucci started reducing its stores from 1000 to 180 locations. They even reduced the SKU’s from 22,000 to just 7,000.
Still, Maurizio holds 50% of the Gucci Shares. So, InvestCorp had to accept his business plan as well. Now Maurizio came up with a crazy Gucci business plan of changing the logo of the brand. Then stop the accessories products and just focus on bags.
InvestCrop board members were not ready for this business plan. However, his ownership had the power and finally changed his business fate.
After the implementation of the Maurizio Gucci Business model, the business went too deep into losses. By then Maurizio’s business principles did not work.
Soon InvestCorp board members were furious to through him out of the board room. Finally, in 1993, Maurizio Gucci sold his 50% of his shares to Investcorp.
Now, the Gucci family holds 0% of the shares. This is the tragic end of the Gucci Family Drama. But Patrizia Reggiana wife of Maurizio added even more horror to the tragic end of the Gucci Family Empire.
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Patrizia Reggiani Gucci Killed Gucci Family Business Reputation
In 1994 Maurizio divorced Patrizia because of his gold-digger attitude. Then Maurizio was happy with her new girlfriend. But still, Patrizia used to threaten his ex-husband.
In 1995, Patrizia Reggiani made a deal with the gunman to shoot Maurizio. So, Maurizio was shot 3 times in daylight. Finally, the Police found Ptarizia as a culprit and sentenced her to 29 years.
However, Patrizo served 18 years of imprisonment and came out with the power of money.
This was the tragic end of the Gucci Family Drama. It all started with the humble beginning of the Guccio Gucci’s desire to come out of poverty.
Finally, money and status killed the entire Gucci Family.
Gucci Brand without Gucci
After the tragic end of Maurizio Gucci, InvestCorpt took 100% control over the business. However, after the death of Maurizio, his business plan worked, and again sales went all-time high. His focus on the bag decision turned the company’s fate into success.
Then InvestCorp Tom Ford was the new design head and Domenico De Sole was the new CEO. Rest is the history. This duo TOM and DOM made the brand revival from a tragic level to another level.
Now Marco Bizzarri is the CEO of the Gucci Business. Now there are over 528 Gucci Stores across the world. In 2022, Gucci made a revenue of $7 billion.