THE VISTA ALEGRE FOCUS ON DESIGN HAS TURNED THE COMPANY INTO ONE OF THE FEW LUXURY PORTUGUESE BRANDS WITH A WORLDWIDE PRESENCE. NEVERTHELESS, DESIGN, INNOVATION AND CLOSE LINKS WITH CULTURE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ITS CORNERSTONES THROUGH THE NEARLY TWO CENTURIES OF COMPANY HISTORY AND ARE NOW MORE ESSENTIAL THAN EVEN BOTH FOR THE POSITIONING AND THE DIFFERENTIATION OF THIS BRAND IN A HIGHLY COMPETITIVE GLOBAL MARKET.
When Vista Alegre was acquired by Grupo Visabeira in 2009, the brand was encountering some difficulties. What were the main factors that helped its rebirth?
In 2009, when Grupo Visabeira took over Vista Alegre, the situation was dramatic. With annual losses of €18 million, innovation and design, which had been part of Vista Alegre’s genetic code ever since its creation, had long since fallen dormant and the brand had closed in on itself.
Grupo Visabeira was aware of the company’s potential, with nearly 200 years of history and a unique link to Portuguese history and culture, when deciding to buy Vista Alegre. Vista Alegre could not die – and, thanks to us, it was reborn and reinvented itself.
The work that still lay ahead was enormous and this task proved even more difficult as in 2011 the country and Europe were heading through a severe financial crisis. However, in order to survive, we had to follow through unswervingly with a difficult and courageous path that began with a thorough restructuring process, touching on all aspects and nuances of Vista Alegre’s activity, both as regards production and the optimisation of production processes, product design and distribution, with a strong focus on internationalisation, the modernisation of its own retail network of stores and as well as focusing on e-commerce.
We maintained our classic roots while opting to target the launch of more contemporary products in partnership with the most prestigious contemporary artists. Nowadays, eight years after the acquisition of Vista Alegre, we reported a profit in 2016 and had an exceptional first quarter and third quarter in 2017. This follows in the wake of 2015 when Vista Alegre received a number prizes and distinctions of excellence in the most prestigious world design competitions.
What were your sales in the third quarter of the year? Did you record any year-on-year growth?
After having ended 2016 recovering from five years of losses and turning in a profit of €1.7 million, Vista Alegre continued this positive trend in the year of 2017. Sales in the porcelain, stoneware, glass and crystal grew 14% in the third quarter and reached €160.9 million, compared with the previous year and net profit amounted to €1.9 million, 2,3 times more than the one registered in the same period.
What is the weighting of the company’s internationalisation in terms of revenues?
In the balance for 2016, internationalisation accounted for 64% of Vista Alegre sales. In the third quarter of this year, the export weighting rose to 68% of the company’s turnover.
How have partnerships with international brands helped leverage the internationalisation strategy?
After “cleaning out the house”, we moved onto international luxury partnerships as this chosen segment for brand positioning. The first and most publicised partnership that we established was with Maison Christian Lacroix, a brand that has a number of affinities with Vista Alegre. It is modern, irreverent but also maintains strong connections with the classic. In 2013, we announced the first collection in partnership with Lacroix, which enabled Vista Alegre to get onto the “red carpet” and enter the all-important French market as this is one of the three main markets defining world trends. This enabled us also to move up a number of positions as regards raising awareness for the brand in some markets, in Europe, the USA and also in the Middle East. We have just launched “Reveries”, the seventh collection of Vista Alegre in partnership with Lacroix, and the overall results are truly exceptional.
In 2016, we announced a partnership with the New York based Maison Oscar de La Renta. This also opened the gates to the US market, the second world centre of tableware market trends.
At the end of the first semester, we launched the first collection of tableware and decoration, developed by one of the most influential of contemporary designers, Jaime Hayon, something which will once again project the visibility and prestige of Vista Alegre internationally.
At the moment, we are working on other international partnerships in our priority markets for international expansion, both in Europe and on other continents.
What are the strategic markets for this Portuguese brand?
Vista Alegre maintains a strong presence and reputation in the traditional markets the company has exported to for decades – such as Spain, France, Germany and Brazil –, and is pursuing its growth and expansion strategy in these markets both through partnerships and through opening its own stores. In France, in 2017, Vista Alegre entered into the major department store Printemps, an important distribution channel, while planning to open its first Vista Alegre flagship store in Paris by the end of this year. Spain represents our largest external market and generates more than 12% of revenues.
The company is now betting strongly on the markets of Mexico, Italy and India. We also witnessed a sharp increase in the number of orders from Belgium and the Netherlands in the first quarter.
What are the future projects for Vista Alegre?
We are now surprised the market in the coming years with the launch of a lighting collection in partnership with one of the world’s biggest designers.
