New Delhi: Gianluca Brozzetti, the chief executive officer of Italian fashion house Roberto Cavalli, is turning to wealthy shoppers in India and other Asian countries to deliver on his plans to turnaround the company which was badly hit by the recession over three years ago.

Only a month ago, Brozzetti had said that the European luxury market was in evident difficulty. "Whoever denies this does not want to face the reality," he had reportedly said earlier.

Cavalli has made a late entry into India, a market where an ever growing rich and young consumers are willing to spend on a luxurious lifestyle. "We recognise this enormous opportunity in India. So, we are bringing our line of luxury products. That would, in addition to our line of clothes, include furniture, textiles and even cutlery... Yes, we maybe late, but one has to be patient with this growing market..."

Brozzetti, who is in India, said in a telephonic interview from Mumbai. In recent years, the Italian fashion house has been experimenting with new strategies including a new fashion line for the youth called Just Cavalli. It is also opening Cavalli Cafe, a hospitality initiative which the company is using to expand, especially in the Asian market.

For the last few years, the Cavalli family has been concentrating on growing business in Europe and the US. "It was like they had forgotten that there was an Asia Pacific. But these markets are important," says Brozzetti, who is now opening stores in Tokyo, Beijing and Delhi.

Brozzetti said the company would open a Cavalli Cafe alongside its Cavalli store at the Emporio in New Delhi. "It complements the brand. It will showcase the peculiar lifestyle of Cavalli and the design will be along the line of what can be seen inside Roberto Cavalli's home in Italy--his boat, private jet, helicopter," says Brozzetti. The hospitality business of Cavalli includes cafes and clubs.

The brand will open its second store and cafe in India, in Mumbai in the next few months and will target the growing demand in smaller cities through exhibitions and trunk shows.

Apart from this geographical diversification, the company is also getting into newer product lines. It is heavily developing leather goods and is also launching a new brand called Roberto Cavalli Home, which will enter India too.

This new brand will sell furniture, textiles, crockery and other products that go into designing a house. This will be part of its hospitality business. "Our Cafes will use this product and customers can see and experience these products and then buy," he says.

The company's other brand, Just Cavalli, which had been in India earlier through its older licensee company, focusses on younger customers. Now Diesel has got the global license for the brand and should come back to India soon, says Brozzetti. ET had reported earlier that Roberto Cavalli has signed a franchise deal with Infinite Luxury that has been set up by Indian fashion designer Manav Gangwani, Dubai-based entrepreneur Sahiba Narang and finance expert Rahul Kapoor.