MILAN (Reuters), -Ferragamo’s Chief Executive Marco Gobbetti has been appointed as the new CEO. He was elected after surpassing analysts’ expectations by a 17.4% rise in sales for the third quarter at constant exchange rates.

In the first nine months, revenues rose 35% to 785 millions euros (907 million). This was mainly due to strong growth in America in the fourth quarter.

It was lower than 994 million euros in the exact same period last year, before the pandemic.

However, the operating profit grew to 19,000,000 euros in third quarter. This is higher than pre-COVID levels.

According to Refinitiv, analysts had predicted that revenue would rise 10% and operating profits of 16 million euros in quarter 3.

Most of the luxury group have now reached pre-COVID level. Ferragamo suffered the most from the effects of the coronavirus epidemic last year. He is still afflicted by his high exposure to airport shops and increased travel spending.

The family owned company was trying to reinvent a brand that is well-known for its shoes worn by Hollywood celebrities like Audrey Hepburn.

Florentine announced the appointment of a new CEO in June to help speed up their relaunch following Gobbetti’s successful turnaround at Burberry.

($1 = 0.8655 euros)