Marco Palmieri, president of the Italian leather goods company Piquadro, loves Hong Kong - and not just because his shops in the city outperform all other Piquadro outlets in Asia. To prove it, he showed photos of his visits to the city dating back more than 20 years.
'It is such a vibrant and lively city, and you can find everything here,' said the 45-year-old native of Bologna, Italy (pictured), who founded the company in 1987 while studying engineering.
Specialising in leather bags and cases for the business traveller, Palmieri was in town last week to visit his five local stores and introduce the new spring-summer line of travel cases.
He said although the Hong Kong shops were doing well, his mainland shops were losing money.
'I think maybe Hongkongers are more into the subtle and sophisticated stitching,' Palmieri said.
To keep up with trends in technology, the Hong Kong shops will launch a service that allows customisation of their bags, all done via an iPhone app or, more mundanely, over the internet.