And they really embraced with this sustainability and high-level of service. And so we are able to drive new customers at the same time increase the level of our offer. And so yes, we’ve become more selective in our customer. I think that Zegna belongs with a very other few brands to sell luxury. And we do believe that this trend has not come to an end, and we are right in the middle of the journey, and we have to expedite the journey in particular in China. As I said several times, we are ahead of the pack in United States by any, any means. We are ahead of the pack in Europe and in Middle East. We are doing a good job in Japan. We have some work to do in some other part of Asia, China, Southeast Asia and Korea. But we are working and we are going together, but this is the part.
This is the world that we want to get, and we got together.
Paola Durante: Thank you. [Indiscernible].
Gianluca Tagliabue: To give some evidence of this journey, especially in China. We have signs that this evolution from leaving behind the aspirational clients in China is giving signs and we see legitimacy from the top-end client we are seeing, for instance, the SECONDSKIN Triple Stitch, which is priced higher than €1,200 in Europe, €1,000, it’s performing very well in China. We are seeing uber luxury products sold very well. We just finished [indiscernible] successful prime show of uber luxury products where clients came in and recognized the collection, the high-quality collection that [indiscernible]. We have in China, the highest number of so-called [indiscernible] that are the ones above the 50,000 spending per year.
So of course, it’s the area, and that is where we have always disclosed we are reshuffling our client base in China. We started later. But we are confident that the formula, the ingredients, the recipe is working also there. We have signed that the product is recognized high-end clients are seeing things as go-to-brand also on the top part. So I think it was — we had to add to the mix.
Paola Durante: And Rodrigo, a couple of comments from your side, and then we leave to the following question.
Rodrigo Bazan: Sure. To put into perspective, from a Thom Browne point of view, I think the fantastic opportunities that we don’t target a specific client. We target male and female clients. So we have a wide variety. We target, we have a young and older clients. So we love them all, and we have an aspiration and we have a very committed client. So that’s the whole range. There’s no question mark, that when you’re going to market and the real estate is impacted by a 25% to 30% and does not reduce from any other financial markets, the aspirational client will be buying less. What we’ve seen is that we have a very developed client value management. And when I walk the streets of the capital that I mentioned, you see the brand wore by clients in combination and with the key luxury brands, most of them are French, and can we get that client to regular Absolutely yes.
Absolutely yes. That’s why marketing is very important. That’s why explaining very clearly what we do as a brand and the range of products is very important. That’s what we mentioned. I have the confidence on the wider selection of product having a connection, a really good understanding of clients. So can you beat the market when it gets to aspiration and knowing that client really well, yes. And that’s what the hard work that we’re doing today, we sent to build a couple of years ago. So we remain always very positive on the expansion of clients. I think what’s happening in the markets, particularly in key markets. It has less growth in general of aspirational clients to clients at the first time into a brand.
Paola Durante: Thank you. Very clear.
Oliver Chen: Very helpful.
Paola Durante: Okay. Oliver, I think we answered your question. If anything, you can come back to me. And we have the last one before closing the call.
Operator: The final question comes from Louise Singlehurst from Goldman Sachs. Louise, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Louise Singlehurst: Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I will keep to one, but just to clarify a couple of things on the wholesale channel. And as we think about that rationalization, which absolutely makes sense for the long-term. But for Thom Browne, is that expected to go into, obviously, the multiyear as we look beyond 2024? And similarly, with TOM FORD, should we be expecting some rationalization of wholesale over time in there? And then a sneaky, but it’s a related question. Presumably, we should start to see an improvement on the gross margin, really helpful getting the gross margin color today in the annuals for 2023. But presumably, we should start to see the channel mix effect benefiting that as we move through into the next couple of years, too. Thank you.
Paola Durante: Thank you, Louise. I’ll let Gianluca to comment a little bit, and then maybe also Lelio on TOM FORD FASHION.
Gianluca Tagliabue: Yes. We — hi, Louise. So we — I go back to what we said in New York. So we have disclosed the growth for the mid-term CAGR of 10%. And there was a question, say, how come you do a 10% growth when you chase an increase of store productivity, we disclosed an increase of store footprint through conversion and through brand new openings, and the answer was we see our wholesale business flattish going forward. So our mindset is that the growth does not come from wholesale. So this is consecutive perspective. We want to keep wholesale basically where it is now. We are going through — especially for Thom Browne in a cleanup and especially a selection of the plans. Definitely, this will translate into a channel mix positive effect in gross margin.
It carries also SG&A together because when we convert we bring some cost attached, possibly some conversions are paying back always our new numbers to have at least in a couple of years, the store up and running. So you might have the first 12 months muted and then a spike afterwards. That was also the reason of my answer to Chris at the beginning if we see our EBIT growth linear or not. No, we are not seeing this because we are going through some conversions, some openings and so on and so forth. But definitely, the logic is go direct to the consumers, Zegna is also already 85% there. We want to bring the other two brands to 70-30, which is not the case today. This comes to selection and conversion. And I leave Lelio and Rodrigo to express the logic of the — we have exactly yesterday a meeting on wholesale, so with that fresh [indiscernible].
As TOM FORD is concerned, as we mentioned in the Capital Markets Day in December, our key driver will grow will be retail because it’s the only way we connect with our [technical difficulty]. Of course, 2024 will be a transition year. So it’s not going to be a year where we are going to make a lot of things happening in ourselves. But to confirm the strategy, I can tell you that already 2024 there’s two point of sale that are not say today that will be moving [indiscernible]. We have additional three new openings that we typically use the wholesale model in the past. They’re going to be open in concession directly. And of course, we, in a way, oblige better control or manage some of the point of sales [indiscernible] or retailer that are not having a good financial situation right now, and we need to better control to avoid a negative impact.
Of course, I reiterate the fact that retail will be the driver of growth. And in the next few years, we’re going to have some much more attention and expansion to the retail network and, of course, transformation in both sales [indiscernible].
Paola Durante: Perfect. Rodrigo, I don’t know if you already talked about [indiscernible].
Rodrigo Bazan: From — so from a Thom Browne point of view, if we wholesale — so if we take that we have a beautiful brand and a beautiful product and we want to connect also the clients. So those three elements, wholesale is an important component — important component because they have a global connection with very important clients. And it doesn’t have to be walking through the doors of the department stores. It can be or should be mostly very well known in VSC client. Like we live in today right now, we saw yesterday when having the event at the store with Saks, the product in front of the best clients they have, having very even developed Saks Fifth Suite market and program. I just [indiscernible] the same thing in Hong Kong with [indiscernible].
It’s fantastic. And just to make it choice, the biggest impact I see this year or last — very last year is from an e-business point of view. We saw the change of ownerships very quickly of a couple of big players. And much just to clarify, Gianluca’s comment we had shut down distribution much before this happens. So that’s one of the few choices. But from a wholesale point of view, where we remain positive is that we want to be connected with the best potential client in the world. It’s a client expansion opportunity at Thom Browne. Clearly that one. Cost can play a specific role. Are we going to see a significant change in volume, not necessarily as Gianluca mentioned, but do we have an opportunity to continue to expand on footwear and accessories where we start to have very good results, particularly from Japan.
Japan is leading for us the opportunity on accessories as well as footwear. There’s been a total commitment and exposure on shop [indiscernible] we have at first two ever spaces on the ground floor [indiscernible] perform really, really well. So what can wholesale contribute. They can connect us with incredible clients. They can put us in front of right next to the most important brands when it gets to accessories and footwear. So we can continue to work intelligently on wholesale and cherry-pick where to grow, which categories to grow and how to expand with it and how to do certain business directly and complement it with other business that brings us clients that we wouldn’t have in the short-term. There’s no market makeup for the room that we suggested that we had with Saks here.
So that’s our view on wholesale. The volumes, as Gianluca mentioned, we’re going to be somewhere on the levels that we expect in 2024, somewhere there as a choice and the breakdown in terms of women’s and men’s. Women’s is a new business. It didn’t exist almost 9 years ago. It’s a very important part of our business. And when it gets to growth and opportunity, clearly, key wholesale accounts can bring us a very interesting client. As well as MTM, MTO, we have had fantastic success where we targeted very elevated, a very committed client from wholesale accounts were made to measure, made to order. We are talking about $9,000 certain fabrics within the collection full suites, and we are talking about given custom orders that come from very significant clients of some of the best departments in the world that by over $100,000 of looks of Thom Browne when it relates to customers of shows?
