ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has acquired the exclusive import/distribution rights for the Spanish shoes brands PALOMA BARCELÓ and MANUEL BARCELÓ in the Japanese market. The brands’ release will occur in the 2018 spring/summer season through CORONET CORPORATION (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Takaaki Komatani, President; hereinafter “Coronet”).

PALOMA BARCELÓ and MANUEL BARCELÓ are factory brands that were established by COSI-COSI FOOTWARE S.L, a company founded by Manolo Barceló in Elche, southern Spain, which is a renowned shoe production area, in 1960. Ever since it started producing the company's iconic products, espadrilles for ladies, the high quality of the manually produced shoes has been supported by luxury maisons around Europe. The company's business was succeeded by the founder’s son, Manuel Barceló, who launched the original ladies’ shoe brand PALOMA BARCELÓ in 2002.
While placing importance on the tradition of espadrilles and the high quality of the handwork, the shoe collection has developed into a more fashionable, powerful and modern one that is highly rated by the European maisons. Moreover, in the 2016 autumn/winter season, the company launched a new brand, MANUEL BARCELÓ, focusing on Italian-made men’s and ladies’ sneakers, to aggressively expand the business. While branching out into major department stores in Paris, London, Milan and New York, it opened the brand’s first flagship store in Madrid, Spain in December 2016 to focus on brand enhancement.

In the Japanese market, the brand will target men and women in their 20s to 50s, and it will mainly sell items in department stores, specialty stores and boutiques throughout Japan. Moving forward, by strongly showcasing the brand vision of PALOMA BARCELÓ and MANUEL BARCELÓ and expanding brand awareness while utilizing Coronet’s experience and expertise, the brands aim to achieve combined retail sales of 1 billion yen in three years’ time.