When Ahlers AG from Herford announced in May that the previous managing director of the Pierre Cardin brand, Karl-Friedrich Schielmann, would be leaving the company, his successor had already been chosen. Now his name has also been announced: Dirk B. Heper. The 54-year-old is no stranger to the Ahlers family. From 2002 to 2004 he had already been the managing director of Ahlers PC GmbH. On July 1st, he will now appear for the second time to steer the fate of the brand.
Objective: Realignment of the Pierre Cardin brand
In the future, he will form the management of Ahlers PC GmbH together with Lür Holler, Managing Director International Sales and Operations. His tasks will include realigning the brand. “We are pleased to have gained a proven specialist and industry insider in Dirk B. Heper, who has enough expertise to push Pierre Cardin’s realignment towards a total look brand with a French heritage,” explains Dr. Stella A. Ahlers, CEO of Ahlers AG.
Dirk B. Heper has many years of experience in the textile industry. After leaving Pierre Cardin, he moved to the management of Olymp Bezner KG in Bietigheim-Bissingen in 2004, where he has been managing director of Bezner GmbH since October 2017 with overall responsibility for product, design and sales of the Olymp, Olymp Signature, Marvelis and all private brands -Label activities.
Different ideas at Olympus
His departure was announced in November last year and took effect immediately. The decision to separate was “agreed upon by both sides by mutual agreement” due to different ideas about the strategic company orientation, the clothing supplier from Bietigheim-Bissingen announced at the time. Heper also worked twice for Olymp Bezner. From 1999 to 2002 he was responsible for sales management for the Olymp and Marvelis brands – until he switched to Pierre Cardin.
Heper’s predecessor Karl-Friedrich Schielmann joined Pierre Cardin in 2014 from the trouser specialist Brax. His tasks included driving the expansion in Germany and Europe forward. He left the company at the end of May.