Clothing chain Esprit aims to regain role as a retail fashion leader
Clothing chain is looking to regain leading role in the retail fashion market by reinvesting in its brand and rethinking the way it does business
When Esprit last month announced it had hired a senior executive from rival Inditex - the company behind Zara - many took it as a sign the fashion retailer wanted to emulate its successful Spanish competitor as a way of revitalising its own brand.
But new chief executive Jose Manuel Martinez Gutierrez has other ambitions.
"His mission is not to make Esprit a Zara," said Ronald Van der Vis, the outgoing chief executive of Esprit, in an interview with the Post at the company's offices in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Van der Vis has been the mastermind behind Esprit's HK$18 billion transformation plan launched in 2010 to restore the brand image and save its plunging market share. The Dutchman resigned for family reasons in mid-June.
Van der Vis said the company has positioned Esprit in a different market segment from rivals like Zara, H&M and Mango. The "Esprit woman", as he describes his typical customer, should be in their 30s and care more about the quality and value of a product than its price. Most other "fast fashion" retailers are more price-driven and target mainly youngsters aged from 15 to 20, he said.
Another major difference between Esprit and Zara is their respective business models. Esprit now has around half of its sales revenue coming from wholesale, while Zara adopts a vertical business and takes control of the sales of all its products, he said.