Giorgio Armani ran one of the best-known fashion houses with a habit of small family firms: the business paid for its own growth. In 2024 the group doubled its investment to €332 million, all of it self-financed, Il Sole 24 Ore reported. This post covers the numbers, three downturns and two supply chain cases. Part 1 covers the founding.
How Armani Paid for Growth With Net Cash
Net cash means more cash than financial debt, so a company can invest in a bad year without a bank or a new shareholder. Until his death Armani owned almost all the shares; his foundation held 0.1%.
In 2024 revenue fell 5% at constant exchange rates to €2.3 billion, and EBITDA (profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) fell 24% to €398 million, according to Reuters and Il Sole 24 Ore. Yet investment rose from €168.5 million in 2023 to €332 million, for flagship stores and in-house e-commerce. Net cash fell from €945.6 million at the end of 2023 to €569.7 million a year later, mainly because of property purchases, Il Sole 24 Ore said. Armani said not chasing immediate gains was the best route to long-term success.
How Armani Came Through 2009, 2020 and 2025
- 2009. Sales fell 6% to €1.5 billion and gross operating profit fell 28% to €218 million, Les Echos reported in 2010. Net cash still rose 20% to €447 million.
- 2020. Revenue fell 25% to €1.6 billion, EBITDA was €263 million and EBIT a loss of €29 million, Milano Finanza reported. Cash and equivalents were €925 million. The paper quoted a group executive linking part of the fall to a choice to limit new collections.
- 2025. Revenue was €2.19 billion, down 4.6%, or 2.8% at constant exchange rates, Reuters and FashionUnited reported in April 2026. EBITDA, now given before lease accounting (IFRS 16), rose from €148 million to €152.7 million; it is not comparable with the €398 million above. Net cash was €529 million.
What the Milan Court Decided in 2024
On 3 April 2024 a Milan court placed Giorgio Armani Operations, the group company that makes its clothes and accessories, under judicial administration for one year. The preventive measure comes from Italy’s anti-mafia code; the company was not under investigation. According to the court, as reported by Il Sole 24 Ore and Reuters, it had outsourced bag and accessory production to suppliers without real capacity, which subcontracted to Chinese-run workshops near Milan paying workers €2 to €3 an hour, some off the books. The court judged the company unable to prevent labour exploitation because it had not adequately checked actual working conditions or its contractors’ capacity.
Armani said it had always had controls to minimise supply chain abuses and would cooperate transparently. On 18 February 2025 the court lifted the measure 45 days early, at the joint request of prosecutors and the company, and called its new controls a possible model for the sector. The company said only two of its many suppliers had betrayed its values.
What the Competition Authority Decided in 2025
On 1 August 2025 the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) fined Giorgio Armani S.p.A. and G.A. Operations €3.5 million for an unfair commercial practice. It found that ethical statements in the code of ethics and on the Armani Values website were untruthful and unclear, because conditions at subcontractors making leather goods did not match them: safety devices removed from machines, poor hygiene, undeclared workers. The practice ran from April 2022 to February 2025, it said.
Armani said it received the decision with bitterness and surprise. It said it had always acted correctly and transparently, that the authority had ignored the court’s early revocation, and that it would appeal to the administrative court. In July 2026 PYMNTS, citing Reuters, reported the appeal under way. We found no ruling as of 20 October 2026.
A fair caveat
Figures come from press reports, not full accounts, and measures change between years. The findings are the court’s and the authority’s; Armani disputes the fine. Net cash also earns little, and a self-funded group grows only as fast as its cash allows. The will and the planned stake sale are in our news post.
Five lessons to take away
- Keep a cash buffer for bad years. Armani’s net cash rose in 2009 as profit fell.
- Self-financing has a price. In 2024, investment and property purchases cut net cash by over a third.
- Ask which measure a figure uses. Armani’s 2024 EBITDA was €398 million on one basis and €148 million on another.
- The cheapest supplier can be the costliest. Outsourcing to firms without real capacity ended in a court measure.
- Public claims must match the supply chain. The fine targeted ethical claims that inspections contradicted.
For a family office
A business-owning family can ask: how much net cash does the business hold, and what is it for? Who checks suppliers’ real working conditions and capacity, not only their prices? Do public statements on ethics match what those checks find? These are questions to bring to your advisors, not advice.
