Ponzano, 15^th September, 2011. Alessandro Benetton, Benetton Group Executive Deputy Chairman, launches the innovative, eye-catching new store concept in Poland, in two stores in Warsaw and Cracow. This is a further example of the Group’s on-going investment in modernity and its desire to combine expansion in the world with a particular attention for architecture and design – elements which have always been integral to Benetton’s business culture.

In testament to the pivotal role Benetton’s shops play in its communication, the authenticity of its fashions and its ties to the arts
, the Lana Sutra project - a series of 15 installations conceived as a celebration of love and of a desire for equality and sharing - was presented in the Milan, Munich and Istanbul stores last week.

The new design concept, developed by Studio Lissoni, features in both the Polish shops. It elegantly conveys Benetton’s innovative, colourful and responsible image and creates a strong sense of style and beauty in cities around the world.

In Warsaw, on 15^th September, Alessandro Benetton will open the newly renovated United Colors of Benetton store offering woman, man and child collections, situated in Zlote Tarasy, the city’s top shopping centre. On this occasion the shop’s 280 square metres will form the stage for a presentation of the new adult and child collections for autumn/winter 2011-2012: a celebration of the brand’s knitwear heritage and of colour, but with the trends and innovative, sinuous lines of the future.

On 16^th September it will be the turn of the United Colors of Benetton store for adult collections in Cracow. The 180m² store located inside Galeria Krakow, the city’s most popular mall, has undergone a complete makeover. The event will feature a performance by live mannequins, highlighting the brand’s open, innovative spirit.

The new store concept’s interior elements all help to establish a feeling of lightness and radiance which showcases Benetton’s colourful collections to best effect while creating a welcoming, almost domestic setting for customers. The floors are grey resin, the wood or metal furnishings are deliberately simple yet elegant. Closets on castors, and systems of rails, shelves and hanging racks recall large, light and learned Fifties-style bookcases. Hanging lamps illuminate the store. A range of simple elements for a neat, elegant display of Benetton clothes and accessories.

Behind the green counter – a nod in the direction of the brand’s colourful origins and also its green commitment – is a magnetic UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON sign lit by special neon lights.

Since opening in Poland in the Nineties, the Group now has 50 stores in the country, 40 of which are United Colors of Benetton adult and the others are Sisley or Benetton child stores. Benetton has more than 300 stores in eastern Europe: over 200 Benetton adult and Undercolors stores, 40 Benetton child, 40 Sisley and 20 Playlife.

Benetton will continue to invest in this region through an innovative, forward-looking business development policy that responds dynamically to the complexity of this market, taking advantage of growth opportunities wherever they appear and creating, in eastern Europe, a true itinerary of style and modernity.