Dolce & Gabbana Around the World

Dolce & Gabbana Srl (Milan, Italy) has announced plans to open 24 stores around the world over the next 12 months.

Among the new locations for the Italian fashion company, as reported by the Daily News Record, will be boutiques under both the Dolce & Gabbana and D&G banners in India, at new luxury mall Emporio in New Delhi. The company is also planning to open a D&G store in Beijing in July and a 12,096-square-foot Dolce & Gabbana flagship in the Chinese capital in the spring of 2009. Other initiatives include new concept stores in Los Angeles in November, and in Kobe, Japan, in September. D&G stores will also open in China’s second-tier cities Nanjing, Shenyang and Dalian before the fall.

“We are doing very well in China, and believe India is a big opportunity for us,” said Cristiana Ruella, the group’s director of general affairs. “We know we have to step into [the India] market, but we don’t expect to have as quick a turnaround as in China. We think we’ll see significant results in no sooner than five years time.”

Ruella said the company also sees great potential in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. “We can still invest a lot in the Middle East, we have yet to reach the ceiling there,” she said. In July, Dolce & Gabbana stores will open in Bahrain and Qatar, while a men’s signature brand boutique will open in Kuwait City in February 2009. D&G stores will open in Manama, Doha and Dubai this year, and in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, within 2009.

And D&G will open a 14,040-square-foot store in the spring, in Budapest, Hungary, where the company plans to open a D&G store in 12 months. “There is a lot of energy there, it’s a born-again city, where they are working to create hotels and restaurants, the kind of environment we need in order to open our sales points,” she said.

Dolce & Gabbana currently operates 90 stores around the world, 68 of which are directly operated. There are 62 D&G boutiques, 44 of which are directly operated.