Fashion industry is changing, with the rise of a new generation of consumers, if not timely response, then the market will be abandoned at any time to a certain extent, the Chinese market has affected the whole fate of Iger.
Fashion industry is changing, with the rise of a new generation of consumers, if not timely response, then the market will be abandoned at any time.
According to the world of clothing and footwear network to understand, recently, the French underwear and clothing retailer Iger (ETAM) was forced to withdraw from the market, and announced that the largest shareholder Finora and unanimous action to obtain a private acquisition offer to a certain extent, China The market has affected the whole fate of Iger.
Underwear socks to sell a century brand
Filed anger, probably the majority of consumers do not know its story, in fact, Iger has been well-known French fashion stage of the century enterprise, you can say no small back.
In 1916, German businessman Max Lindemann founded Etam in Berlin, initially selling underwear and socks, and in order to reduce the risk of developing in overseas markets, Lindemann came up with a franchise to give Iger's business rights to local partners.
In 1928, Lindemann's underwear business has been gradually extended to the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries.At the same time, Iger now major shareholder Milchior family when Martin Milchior opened a lingerie chain in Belgium.
In 1929, Lindemann opened his first overseas store in Paris, France, and then Martin Milchior acquired 21 Iger stores in France and set up factories. Iger's business dominated to the Milchior family.
In 1958 Martin Milchior died, Pierre Milchior began to integrate the business between the two families, became the ultimate Etam brand.It can be said that for decades, Iger has been walking in the forefront of the times and seize every trend, while at 80 , 90 years because of good at inventory management and achieved steady development.
Iger's localization operation
Iger entered the Chinese market quite early.
According to public information, Iger Group as early as 1994 in China to set up branches in Shanghai British model Garment Co., Ltd., in 1995, opened the first store in Shanghai in 1997, Iger in the Paris Stock Exchange, the global sales Outlets more than 1000, the business also extended to men and women, underwear, casual wear, sportswear, etc. It is worth mentioning that, at that time, Iger in China has opened more than 700 retail stores, with annual sales of more than 900 million yuan.
In many people view, although Iger is a foreign brand, but the localization is very thorough.
Iger to the beginning of China, products, retail management, logistics and other aspects of the headquarters by the French experts to guide, but Iger China's core team by the Chinese people to implement and implement, can be said to operate quite successful.
According to one of the top executives of Iger, Iger recalled that Iger was the most prosperous from 1999 to 2007, when China's sales performance was double-digit growth, France's profitability is not very strong. , 1997 to 2007, Iger China market development to make up for the performance of Europe.
According to the strong performance of the Chinese market, in 2009, Iger Group founder PierrePilchior has publicly stated that 'China's clothing market demand is still very strong, we will increase more investment. China's market is very large.' According to financial data show that as of 2014 6 On the 30th, Iger in the world a total of 4246 stores, of which 3083 are in China.
Into China, the failure of China
However, in the ups and downs, Iger's real fall began in the financial crisis, the European market is uneven development at the same time also suffered a new fast fashion brand H & M and Zara serious impact, the barriers established by the Chinese market soon to be broken. It can be said that the Chinese market was the most successful market for Iger, and Iger's recession, also from the Chinese consumers like the rapid changes in preferences.
Some people say that Iger is actually prepared to avoid 'fall', but the equity and management turmoil in 2007 made some preparations to be overturned, and while Iger was still in a growing trend and did not After the attention.
In 2012, Iger China CEO Fu Xin said in an interview with the media: 'Iger is a fast fashion brand, but this statement is clearly difficult to be recognized by the industry from the new goods speed, Iger's efficiency is not ZARA , H & M and Uniqlo fast, style is also far from ZARA and H & M novel.
Since 2003, Iger China sales began to decline, while in Europe and other markets outside of China, Iger has become a brand to operate underwear.From 2013, Iger like Victoria's secret as the annual held underwear large Show, attack the underwear of Iger began to become high-profile up.
In the first half of 2014, Iger closed 88 stores in the Chinese market, while trying to open a separate store in the shopping center.As of the end of 2016, Iger China's number of stores from 2877 in 2015 reduced to 2596.
November 2015, Iger is located in Shanghai Chia Tai Plaza opened a store area of more than 100 square meters, only sales of underwear Iger. This is the first 100% in China only 100% underwear business stores, this store to restore the Iger France After the turn of the store, Iger returned to the beginning of the field started, but for Chinese consumption, Iger need to start from scratch to talk about a new 'underwear' story, and the gas brand awareness may make This resistance becomes bigger.
In 2016, Iger Group in the Chinese market operating loss of 19.4 million euros, annual sales recorded 12.921 billion euros, sales decline mainly due to the downturn in the Chinese market led by the first half of 2017, Iger in Europe net sales increased by 3.4 At the end of March 2017, Iger China market is still no improvement, and exacerbated deterioration, during which China's market sales plunged 23.9% to 93 million euros.
