Diesel S.p.A.

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Diesel SpA

Type	Private
Founded	Molvena, Italy (1978)
Founder	Renzo Rosso Adriano Goldschmied
Headquarters	Molvena
Key people	Renzo Rosso, owner and CEO
Industry	Fashion
Products	Apparel and Accessories
Revenue	€1.2 billion (US$1.85 billion)
Employees	3,300 (2005)
Website	www.diesel.com

Diesel store in Krakow (2007).

Diesel S.p.A. is an Italian design company. It is best known for clothing aimed at the youth market, particularly jeans, but the brand can now be found on everything from wristwatches to perfume. The company is owned by its founder Renzo Rosso, and is based in Molvena in northern Italy.

1 History
2 Brands
3 Marketing
4 See also
5 Notes and references
6 External links

[edit] History

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The company was founded by Renzo Rosso^[1] and his former boss Adriano Goldschmied of the AG Jeans company, in 1978. Diesel's milestone years include 1985 (Renzo's complete acquisition of the company), 1991 (beginning of the international marketing strategy) and 1996 (opening of Diesel's first flagship store on New York City's Lexington Avenue). In February 2007, the company launched a major intimates and beachwear division for men and women that is carried in the retail and department stores. Diesel Black Gold was announced in November 2007.

The company has around 3,500 employees in 17 subsidiaries across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Its products are available in 5000 retail outlets, of which 300 are Diesel-branded stores.^[1] 200 of these are owned by the company, the rest are franchised.^[1] Annual sales were approximately €1.2 billion in 2005 and largely consist of denim sales.

Most of Diesel's current production is outsourced to small and medium-sized companies. Production of denim jeans is based mainly in Italy.

[edit] Brands

The main Diesel Jeans line is supported by a children's and sportswear lines. The luxury denim range Diesel Denim Gallery has now been joined by a casual-luxury brand, Diesel Black Gold.^[2]

The Diesel name has been licensed to other companies to produce underwear, footwear, leather goods, eye wear, jewelry, wristwatches, fragrances and other accessories. The watches are produced by Fossil, Inc., and the fragrances by L'Oreal. The underwear license is held by the US company Mast Industries Inc., who also make lingerie for Victoria's Secret.

[edit] Marketing

"Dieselwall" in Berlin

Diesel has attracted press attention with controversial advertising campaigns. The Spring/Summer 2007 campaign, dubbed "Global Warming Ready", featured images of cities such as Paris, London and Venice after global warming has taken place. The image for Paris shows the Eiffel Tower surrounded by a tropical rainforest with a man walking a lizard.

In recent years the company has driven its attention to the youth market, by sponsoring several projects such as the Diesel-U-Music Contest or the Diesel Wall artistic programme, marketing their clothing in video games, or being main partner of an ITS Fashion Accessories and Photo competition ITS International Talent Supportor by participating in other actions, such as the 2006 edition of Life Ball, the Sundance Film Festival.