With new Hong Kong store, Moncler CEO Remo Ruffini shows faith in city’s luxury fashion market

In a further boost to luxury retail in Hong Kong, Moncler, the Italian fashion company famed for its down jackets, opened its largest Asian boutique last Friday in Tsim Sha Tsui.

To celebrate the opening, Moncler has placed over 10,000 Mr Moncler figurines in several locations around the city, of which 350 unique models were created by street artist Craig Costello. A quirky way to garner attention, it also signals a vote of confidence in Hong Kong, with the company usually reserving such complicated campaigns to its core markets.

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“We opened our first Asia flagship here [in Hong Kong] but this is on another level,” says Moncler CEO Remo Ruffini, who flew in for the opening of the 5,382 square foot street-level store. “Finally we have a space to explain to people our brand.”

The opening of the Canton Road store is a testament to Moncler’s current good standing, with revenues exceeding €1 billion (US$1.18 billion) for the first time in 2016 and expecting to jump again this year. Much of that success is down to Ruffini, 50, a hands-on CEO and to many a creative director in all but name. Since taking over in 2003 he has charted the company’s meteoric rise from a heritage winter sportswear brand to a cutting-edge fashion-forward powerhouse.

The core of Ruffini’s strategy has been making its signature down jackets desirable items across the globe. “It sells just as well here in Hong Kong as it does in Canada,” he says, adding that the company has toyed with fabric technology to make lighter-weight jackets for warmer climes.

Fundamentally, though, Ruffini puts Moncler’s success down to two things. “First we are quite young, and [second] we never compromise,” he says.