Now it's 'united retailers of Benetton'.

It seems that The United Colors of Benetton has mastered one of the best-known cliches of American business - if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. After virtually vanishing from the City in the late 1980's, the fashion retailer is planning to give New York another try with several large, self-owned stores, strategically positioned around Manhattan. According to retail experts, Benetton's new strategy is probably a smart move, which will ensure that the same thing that happened to them in the 1980's won't occur again.

Robert K. Futterman, president of Robert K. Futterman & Associates, who is currently trying to close a deal for Benetton on the Upper East Side, thinks that the retailer has learned from its old mistakes.

"What happened before is that they opened so many stores that were so close to each other and had no real management in place, that it was bad for the business. There was a lot of cannibalism that took place -- the stores were literally a couple of steps away from each other," he said. "Now, they are trying to realign themselves and get themselves more of a corporate signature."

Ben Fox, an executive director at Newmark New Spectrum, commended Benetton's decision to get rid of the franchises. "Each one of those different franchise stores had different store policies, different pricing, and different merchandise mixes, so after a while it became very confusing to the public," he explained. "I would hope that they have a better plan now."

Benetton has leased only three locations so far -- one at 527 Broadway in SoHo, one at 666 Third Ave., and one at Eighth Ave. in Chelsea. According to Futterman, however, there are more stores to come. "We've been working with them to help them find some other locations on the West Side and in Midtown," he admitted. "I could see them doing another five or six stores."

So do the experts think it will all work out the second time around? "Benetton is an evolving retail company that has obviously responded to the market which encourages retailers to build larger stores that have more merchandise," Fox concluded: "They have a very broad audience, so they would do well in all of the major regional shopping hubs in the City -- SoHo, Midtown, the Flatiron District, Herald Square. As long as they stay in neighborhoods with high disposable incomes and can capture a family audience, they should do fine."

Futterman conceded that so far the retailer has been making wise decisions concerning store locations. "The one in SoHo sounds like the right location," he said. "It's got the right size and the right neighborhood. But I also read that they are considering a site at Seventh Avenue and 17th Street, and that confused me a bit."

Neither The Benetton Group, nor its leasing agent, Cushman & Wakefield, would comment on the deals.