Prada Group's commercial director Manzatto is new Church & Co CEO

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 18, 2022

Prada Group’s luxury UK footwear operation, Church & Co, has a new boss. The company has announced the appointment of Denni Manzatto as the firm’s CEO, succeeding Anthony Romano, who has been with the brand since 2017. 

In his new role, Manzatto will lead the brand that’s still based in the traditional UK centre of the footwear industry, Northampton.

The company said he’ll head up “a new global growth strategy, using his significant professional experience to accelerate the international development and re-branding of the Church’s label”. 

The company has been working on its strategy for some time and pre-pandemic it boosted its presence in the US market.

Manzatto has been with the Prada Group since 2013, covering various different commercially-focused roles. After gaining an Executive MBA from Tsinghua and INSEAD universities in 2018, the following year, he became commercial director at the group, responsible for developing the wholesale channel and managing eyewear and fragrances licences and commercial development projects. Despite his new role at Church & Co, he’ll continue with the responsibilities on a temporary basis, the company said.

It will be interesting to see what Prada and Manzatto have planned for Church & Co, which today remains a bastion of traditionally styled footwear for men and women. 

The company was actually established as far back as 1873 and was a go-to label for affluent shoppers seeking hand-sewn shoes, something that continued when Prada acquired it in 1999.