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MILAN – Rinascente has serious beauty ambitions.
On Monday, the Italian department store said it has signed a long-term lease agreement for a landmark site next to its main unit overlooking the Duomo cathedral here, with plans to turn it into a new beauty destination for both Milanese and tourist crowds.
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Known locally as “Odeon”, the historic site formerly housed cinema halls and has been a cultural and meeting point for citizens here for many years, before it closed down last year.
Rinascente’s chief executive officer, Pierluigi Cocchini, said the company will renovate the center and open the “Rinascente Odeon Beauty Hall” by May 2027.
The plan is to move under one roof the established beauty brands currently displayed on the ground floor of its Duomo unit, as well as the indie labels displayed at the Beauty Bar area installed in its Annex building. In doing so, the area dedicated to the beauty category is set to expand threefold, as the new hub will cover 32,291 square feet over three floors.
In addition to housing more than 300 brands in makeup, skin care and fragrance, the new space will offer makeup stations and advanced beauty treatments curated by brands on the first and second floors.
As reported, the department store tested consumer interest in this experiential side by launching the Beauty Fair initiative earlier this year, and replicated it with a sophomore edition last month. In this format, established brands and indie brands staged pop-ups to present their latest collections, limited edition or customizable products as well as offering free treatments, workshops and masterclasses to customers.
“We already had a strong beauty, but now we have this opportunity to be even stronger,” Cocchini said. “This is such an important category, a traffic builder category and one that has been showing positive momentum for a few years now. Brands that already have a beauty business are strengthening it, while those that don’t are launching it,” continued the executive, emphasizing the key role of cosmetic products in offering consumers a more approachable first entry to super brands.
“Then there are the indie labels, with new names coming out every day. We had them in our Beauty Bar but we didn’t have beauty treatments, for example, and that would be an interesting part to explore as well. This is a broader, 360-degree approach to the category, which goes beyond selling products.”
According to Cocchini, the new space is expected to attract 3 million visitors in the first year. “In Milan, our beauty sales currently reach 50 million euros. We expect these to rise to 80 million euros in the first year since the opening of the new hub, with a target of between 130 million euros and 140 million euros in total once this space is fully settled,” said Cocchini.
With the new destination the retailer is targeting Millennial and Gen Z customers, as the latter are set to make up 25 percent of its customer base in five years. In the last 12 months, 36 percent of Rinascente Duomo’s clients bought beauty products, one in three customers as a Gen Z-er.
The retailer commissioned architect Marco Costanzi and his eponymous studio to renovate the new location to respect the original design, which dates back to the 1930s. “We went through a similar restyling process when we opened the Roma Tritone [unit] in 2017, after more than 10 years of works,” recalled Cocchini. “We will keep the same approach with this historic building: we will show respect for the place that hosts us and we will try to improve it by combining its historical elements with modernity.”
Costanzi, who has already relaunched the Rinascente unit in Florence and recently worked on Dior’s new headquarters in Paris, has kept details of the new interior concept under wraps, but it is understood the space will retain a tie to its previous use, not only stylistically, since four movie theaters are to continue operating in the basement. To further enhance the experiential premise, 7,534 square feet will be dedicated to a dining area, with a bar on the ground floor and a more expansive destination on the second floor.
Cocchini pointed out that the new project will also have a domino effect on Rinascente’s main building unit. The area previously focused on beauty brands will be renovated and replanted to expand the accessories, watch and jewelry categories, thus doubling the current retail surface dedicated to these segments to 21,527 square feet.
“Our total investment will be around 40 million euros, divided into 30 million euros for the Odeon plan and 10 million euros for the renovation of the ground floor, in a project we call ‘Grand Floor,'” said Cocchini, at to emphasize that additional 10 million. Beauty brands that enter the new hub will invest euros to set up their booths.
Also expected to be unveiled in 2027, the Great Floor project will enable the retailer to increase sales generated by the aforementioned categories from the current 200 million euros to 370 million euros in the first year of the new layout.
“The accessories category is a big strength for us, but at the same time it’s also a weakness if we think about the square feet available for each brand,” said Cocchini. “The problem with Italian department stores is that our cities are medieval or trace back to the Renaissance, so the spaces cannot be compared to those in Paris or London,” continued the executive, comparing it to the total surface of 226,042 square feet Rinascente Duomo. and those are three or four times more in other European capitals.
The jewel-in-the-row unit of the department store, Rinascente’s Milan flagship, draws an average of 8.3 million visitors per year and generates about half of the company’s total sales. The retailer, which is controlled by the Central Group of Thailand and has a network of nine centers in Italy, hit the 1 billion euro sales mark last year, reporting a 16 percent increase compared to 2022 and a 14 percent growth over its year record in 2019. Sales grew in all merchandise categories, with a particular focus on luxury and beauty accessories, which climbed 28 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
“Despite the two wars and crisis in the luxury world, I think we will beat last year’s record. The next three months will be crucial, now our sales are up about 1 or 2 percent [versus last year]so let’s see what happens,” Cocchini said.
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