OVS – Love people. Not labels. (1972)
OVS: THE ITALIAN LOW-COST
OVS, formerly Oviesse is the company with an Italian clothing foundation. It covers all gender and age targets (men, women, children). The name is an acronym: Special Sales Organization.
THE ORIGINS
In the 1960s, Coin warehouses had spread in Italy, but these did not cover the entire Italian territory. Thus, above all, the small and medium-sized centers were left without this resource.
So it was that, in 1968, another chain of warehouses called Coinette was founded , which made up for the lack.
Slowly the Coinette began to grant itself an identity of its own, and it was thus that, in 1972, in Padua, the first Oviesse was founded, which then spread rapidly throughout Italy.
THE ACQUISITIONS
In Italy, since 1931 (which went bankrupt in 2002) there was a chain of supermarkets, active in the sector of department stores, in the food and non-food branches, called Standa.
In 1998, Oviesse acquired 167 stores in the non-food branch of Standa which were heavily indebted. All ex Standa stores undergo a refurbishment and become Oviesse stores based on the franchise plan.
In 2004, Oviesse reaches 250 points of sale. During those years, Oviesse attempted an expansion in Germany and Switzerland, however this was not successful and it was forced to sell the business.
In 2006 it starts a new expansion in Russia and Serbia. It carries out new openings outside Italy and thus the foreign stores become seventeen.
In 2008, the Coin group, still the main shareholder of OVS, announced the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Tre.bi Spa, owner of the Melablu clothing chain .
The turnover produced by this new acquisition, which included 60 points of sale located throughout Italy, but above all in Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto, means that the Coin-OVS group reaches 400 points of sale.
In 2009, DEM department stores were acquired in Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and eastern Lombardy .
In the same year, in December, the group takes the Upim from the competitor La Rinascente .
On 8 September 2010, the fiftieth OVS store was inaugurated in Milan, in via Torino.
In December 2011, OVS kids was born, thanks to the acquisition of IANA SpA, a children’s clothing brand.
In August 2012, the Coin Group acquires 104 stores of the Bernardi group , which are converted into OVS-UPIM.
DIVISION OF OVS FROM THE COIN GROUP
OVS SpA was born on 1 August 2014, as the company separates from the Coin Group.
In 2015, the new joint stock company is listed on the Milan stock exchange with an initial capitalization of 930.7 million euros.
The following year, COSI-Concept of Style Italy-SpA was added to OVS SpA.
THE CHANGE OF NAME AND LOGOS
In 2007, Ovviesse, an icon that had already changed three different formats from 1972 to 2010, joins the new OVS Industry brand . The new logo has white lettering on a black background. This too will be changed in 2012, with the elimination of the word “industry”. In 2014 the font and color of the letters of “OVS” were changed, which are yellow on a white background.
EXPO 2015
Together with Coin Excelsior it participates as official sponsor of the 2015 Expo held in Milan.
OVS had its own pavilion designed by Zito-Pedron Architetti, which, at the end of the Expo, was converted into a company nursery.
In 2016, OVS launched a capsule collection by Jean-Paul Gaultier.
Face of the campaign is Bianca Balti. The model showed off her OVS X Jean-Paul Gaultier look, embellished with sparkling Chopard jewels , at the Venice Film Festival.
THE TURNOVER OF 2018
OVS launches a collection by Kendall and Kylie Jenner .
The two sisters are known to the general public for their role as influencers, models and celebrities on the small screen for their family-based reality show The Kardashians . This capsule makes the company recover visibility, especially among the young public.
In the same year, Massimo Piombo becomes the stylist of all the OVS lines and collections. The following year, Piombo becomes a 30% shareholder in the company.
CAPSULES ARTS OF ITALY
On 22 September 2019, OVS resumes a capsule collection, already launched in 2017, but which had not caused the same sensation, inspired by the Opera: Arts of Italy, sponsored by Bianca Balti .
Significantly, the capsule aims to combine Italian fashion and art and bring the world of fashion closer to that of opera, highlighting the artistic and cultural heritage of Italy. The collection is created in collaboration with the creative team of Davide Rampello & Partners . The works from which she was inspired are 5: Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti, I Capuleti and I Montecchi by Vincenzo Bellini, La Cenerentola by Gioacchino Rossini, Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini and La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi.
Notably, the collection is made up of clothes inspired by the garments of the eras in which the considered operas take place, but revisited in a contemporary key.
Stefano Beraldo, CEO of company, explained:
“ I like this edition of Arts of Italy because it creates a connection between the classic and the contemporary. Classical music and opera can be a tremendous source of inspiration ”.
The “artistic curator” of OVS X Arts of Italy was Elio, di Elio and the tense stories.
Both Bianca Balti and Elio wore clothes designed by the brand for that year’s Venice Film Festival.
STEFANEL
Furthermore, in March 2021, company acquired Stefanel , obtaining its 23 points of sale, for a value of 3.2 million euros.
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