Incom, U.S. Polo Assn.’s Tuscan European licensee, is targeting 50 stores by year-end and an eventual fifty percent of revenue from owned retail — a structural bet by a licensee that currently earns most of its revenue through wholesale.
The European licensee for U.S. Polo Assn. is pushing hard into owned retail across Southern Europe and Italy. The company is targeting about 50 stores by the end of 2026 and says it ultimately wants half of its revenue to come from stores it owns. That would be a major shift for a business that still makes most of its money through wholesale.
The expansion is being led by Incom, the Tuscany based company that manufactures and distributes U.S. Polo Assn. under license across Europe. In an interview with FashionNetwork at Pitti Uomo in Florence, Incom CEO Lorenzo Nencini laid out the plan and the channel mix targets behind it.
Incom said it closed 2025 with revenue up 18 percent. It is projecting about €78 million in European apparel sales in 2026, with another 10 percent growth penciled in for 2027. Men’s apparel accounts for 70 percent of sales, women’s 22 percent and children’s the remaining 8 percent.
Who will own the stores
Of the roughly 50 locations planned by year end, Incom expects 32 to 33 to be company owned, with the rest run under franchise agreements. To support the rollout, the group has created a dedicated retail division.
Planned 2026 openings include a second store in Barcelona, stores in Madrid and Palma de Mallorca and an entry into Portugal. In Italy, the focus has shifted toward outlet locations, with planned openings in Turin, Mondovì and Palmanova. Germany and Italy remain the two anchor markets for Incom’s U.S. Polo Assn. business in Europe. Spain and France are described by Nencini as being in a consolidation phase.
Why the channel mix matters
Wholesale has long been the dominant model for European licensed sportswear distributors. It requires less capital, brings fewer operational headaches and tends to deliver predictable volume. Incom’s plan to raise retail to about 30 to 35 percent of total revenue by 2030, and eventually to 50 percent, would be a meaningful break from that playbook.
The global backdrop
Incom’s European push comes as the parent brand appears to be in a period of commercial strength. USPA Global, the USPA unit that manages U.S. Polo Assn. commercially, reported $2.7 billion in global retail sales in 2025 across about 1,200 stores in 190 countries. In 2026, the brand was named a five star honoree in USA TODAY’s “Most Trusted Brands” ranking, based on a consumer survey of more than 23,000 respondents.
USPA Global has also been investing in content distribution to build awareness of the sport. Its ESPN distributed series Breakaway, produced through media subsidiary Global Polo, was a finalist for best specialized sports content storytelling at the 2026 Cynopsis Sports Awards and earned a third straight Platinum at the LIT Entertainment Awards.
