FYNCH-HATTON, the internationally renowned lifestyle brand headquartered in Mönchengladbach, looks back with great pleasure on its 25th anniversary and at the same time celebrates an impressive business development. Starting out as a local knitter, he is now a notable global player. FYNCH-HATTON is successful in 55 countries with 2900 POS. The last two years in particular have been characterized by significant changes and further developments that are now bearing fruit. In April 2021, FYNCH-HATTON ushered in a new era when owner Roger Brandts handed over operational management to Mathias Eckert. As a former member of the management of the S.Oliver Group, where he held various positions and was responsible for sales for over two decades, Eckert brings with him an excellent network in the German-speaking area and in the most important export markets.
In the 2022 financial year, the company, under the leadership of CEO Mathias Eckert, will record growth across the board. The company achieved sales of EUR 61.9 million, an increase of 40.1% compared to EUR 46 million in the previous year: “In 2020 we had to cope with a decline in sales to EUR 32.4 million due to the pandemic,” says CEO Mathias Eckert, “we are proud that we were able to compensate for this deficit and almost double sales compared to the pandemic year”. The DOB collection, which was only launched in 2020, already has a sales share of 12%, and the trend is rising. The export share of more than 50% confirms the success of the brand beyond the German home market. EBIT is in the good single digits. The next goal has been set: by 2025, Mathias Eckert wants to break the 100 million euro sales mark.
Consistently directed forward
The success does not come about by chance: the further development of the key looks of the urban casual brand for women and men, the development and expansion of our own sales department, the modernization of the B2B showrooms, the strengthening of e-commerce and consistent in-season Management of existing customers and the acquisition of new customers for womenswear and menswear are essential success factors. FYNCH-HATTON used the pandemic as an opportunity to rethink processes and structures and to further develop the brand:
In 2020, the company launched a full collection for women, FYNCH-HATTON Women.
In 2021, the brand expanded its product portfolio with a belt collection, watches, jewelry and living.
In 2022, FYNCH-HATTON takes over responsibility for sales in Germany and Austria and launches a B2B showroom rollout with the opening of its own showrooms in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Eschborn, Sindelfingen, Munich and Salzburg.
With a total of 10 men’s men’s and 9 women’s women’s collections a year, FYNCH-HATTON is now one of the leading modern-casual suppliers in the mid-price segment. Each collection contains between 30 and 60 articles from all outfit product groups. The brand offers the high-quality core products such as polo shirts and knitwear in an unusually wide range of colors with up to 20 options. FYNCH-HATTON is present in 55 countries at around 2,900 points of sale, including its own shop-in-shops, and currently employs around 80 people at its headquarters.
Create meaning and connect the senses
Far beyond the brand and product, FYNCH-HATTON offers a comprehensive world of experience that combines quality and enjoyment with all the senses – with consideration for people and the environment. “We produce in an environmentally friendly and resource-saving manner and attach great importance to transparency and stable partnerships as well as to the ethically and morally impeccable manufacture of our products,” says Mathias Eckert, “Sustainability, compliance with social standards, dignified working conditions and fair remuneration are key issues for us” .
FYNCH-HATTON has a long, respectful partnership with its suppliers. They are the same partners who helped build the brand 25 years ago. The certification of all partners, mainly in the large Asian production countries China, Bangladesh and India, follows strict and objective rules. All producers and suppliers undertake to fulfill the special FYNCH-HATTON quality promise and to meet the customer’s price-performance requirements.
In 2020, FYNCH-HATTON established an internal “sustainability department” in order to integrate these topics in all areas of the company, to make the status quo measurable and transparent and to act immediately if necessary. After a detailed examination of the supply chain and product groups at the beginning of 2021, the company has been developing best practices for all internal and external areas since the end of the same year. The team is also working on developing a tool that uses tracking to transparently understand the supply chain. FYNCH-HATTON makes the annual sustainability report public.
In the footsteps of the namesake
The “FYNCH-HATTON Adventures & Travels” division, in cooperation with First Reisebüro Mönchengladbach, authentically rounds off the brand universe. On offer are trips in the footsteps of Denys Finch Hatton, the famous adventurer and namesake, which lead to the fascinating landscapes of Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania or the Kruger National Park
A trip to South Africa
25 years of FYNCH-HATTON, a success story
In preparation for his studies, FYNCH-HATTON founder and owner Roger Brandts completed an internship in South Africa in 1985 – the unique interplay of light and colors, the beauty of the untouched nature and the happiness of the people never let him go. This is where his passion for the continent begins – and the brand’s success story – shaped by his impressions and Out of Africa, the 1985 cult film about British adventurer and free spirit Denys Finch Hatton. In the spring of 1998 he put the idea into practice: Roger Brandts founded Fynch-Hatton Textil-Handelsgesellschaft mbH.
His father would have preferred to see him as his successor in the cloth factory in Mönchengladbach – in a good family tradition at one of the most important textile locations in Germany, which is closely linked to the Brandts name. Between 1825 and 1830, Franz Anton Brandts, Roger Brandt’s great-great-great-grandfather, founded the F. Brandts manufacturing business here. Since then, the cloth-making family has shaped both the fortunes of the Mönchengladbach site and the history of the textile industry – this is how the basis of Bismarck’s valid social legislation was developed in the Mönchengladbach textile companies. With the early introduction of factory regulations, the founding father was one of the pioneers in adhering to the social laws established by Bismarck.
Roger Brandts is undeterred. Well-founded practical experience in textile retail and central purchasing, extensive knowledge of the market and an outstanding product that meets the highest demands in terms of material, workmanship and fit are the best prerequisites for the successful market launch in autumn 1998 he launches FYNCH-HATTON, a compact 40-piece men’s knitwear collection, with the aim of closing the gap between the entry-level and premium price ranges.
About FYNCH-HATTON: In 1998, the then 32-year-old industrial engineer Roger Brandts started the casual label FYNCH-HATTON. Out of
the knitwear collection, a new and attractive menswear casual full-range supplier was created. Today, FYNCH-HATTON is represented in 55 countries at over 2,500 POS. Most recently, the family has massively moved to the company headquarters in
Mönchengladbach invested and expanded to include showrooms, modern offices and its own logistics areas. At the end of 2020, the company announced the launch of a new ladies’ womenswear line. Digitization has also recently been strongly promoted.