* Company President says needs another year before floating
* Closing Grenoble plant to recentre in Italy
* Will have 38 stores at year-end, open 10-12 more in 2011
By Astrid Wendlandt
PARIS, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Moncler, the maker of trendy goose down jackets, wants to wait at least a year before floating its shares in Milan to focus on expanding globally, its president and creative director Remo Ruffini said.
The maker of 1,000 euro ($1,390) shiny black jackets, which have become popular among the fashion-conscious, had initially said it aimed to float by the spring or summer of 2011.
"We just started last month to prepare for an IPO. I think we need at least another year (before going to market)," Ruffini told Reuters in an interview in Paris.
"I think the spring is not reasonable (in terms of timing). We are quite a young company ... My number one priority is to be as international as possible," he said.
Moncler's wish to take its time before flotation comes as luxury fashion brand Prada mulls an initial public offering in Hong Kong to increase its exposure to the fast-growing Chinese market and pay down debt.
Moncler, which started as a ski jacket maker in the Grenoble region in 1952, was a dormant brand generating sales of 45 million euros when Ruffini bought control in 2003.
Since then he has turned Moncler into a hot brand generating double-digit margins on annual sales of about 400 million euros.
Moncler jackets are made with goose down purchased from Russia, Poland and France. The main body is produced in Moncler's plant in Padua, near Venice, then the jackets are stitched and finished in Bulgaria, France and Italy.
The company will next month start selling its new Grenoble collection which will be more technical and ski-oriented than existing jackets. However it is closing its plant in Grenoble.
"I tried for five-six years to talk with them (staff in Grenoble) ... We tried to change their mentality but the local staff never followed us, so at the end we decided to have one production site in Padua," Ruffini said.
REVENUE GROWTH
As Moncler makes a significant portion of its sales in the pre-Christmas period, Ruffini said it was too early to say whether revenue would grow this year more than last year, during which revenue rose 23 percent to 372 million euros.
"We don't want to grow too fast," Ruffini said. "We have this black shiny jacket with a logo that is very popular, but we don't want to make more than a few thousand pieces a season so that is why many models are already sold out."
He would only say the company's revenue was growing in "double-digit terms."
Moncler, which opened a big store in New York's Soho last month, its second in the United States after Aspen, is looking to open in Chicago and in downtown Boston soon.
By year end Ruffini said Moncler would have 38 directly operated stores and would next year open another 10 to 12 stores in countries such as China as well as in Berlin and Vienna.
Ruffini said the company exports about 60 percent of its production and by 2013 wanted to export 75 percent.
"If you really want to be global, you have to in Japan, in China, in Korea, in the United States, in Scandinavia, even in Brazil," Ruffini said.
Private equity firm Carlyle acquired 48 percent of the brand in 2008 in a deal which valued it at around 220 million euros.
Ruffini, who acquired the company after its parent went bankrupt, now owns 38 percent. The remaining balance of 13 percent is in the hands of private equity firm Mittel.
Ruffini said shareholders had not decided yet how much they would sell at flotation, though Carlyle is likely to be one of the main sellers. Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch have been retained as Moncler's advisers. (Editing by David Holmes) ($1=.7196 Euro)