Renew or die. That is the credo of many fashion brands in this time of great crises, in which bankruptcy proceedings and store closures follow one another at a rapid pace. Compared to these scenarios, menswear brand Hechter Paris (formerly Daniel Hechter) is doing fine. After a name change earlier this year, the company, which has 63 stores, wants to dynamize its brand in several markets.
When we asked Managing Director Tanguy Mulliez about the recent rebranding process of Daniel Hechter – now Hechter Paris – the manager admitted: “The decision-making process was quite difficult and lengthy because of course you’re afraid of making a mistake. But once you’ve made your decision, it all comes naturally, you don’t ask yourself any more questions, it reassures you that it was the right decision. A lot of things come out of that, just like when they start a new brand, because because they have a new name they have to communicate it, explain the positioning, explain what they do, explain it to everyone they work with. It’s a change that’s happening not only externally but also internally, you have to involve all teams in this movement. And of course the most important thing is the product and the communication that goes with the message so that the general public can finally understand who Hechter Paris is today.”
“French heritage, cheerful, confident.” So defined Ingo Wilts, who was appointed Brand Director a few weeks ago , the new image of Hechter Paris. Founded in the 1960s, the brand relied on its French heritage to become more competitive. The structure of the collection has been revised to appeal to a younger target group: 40 percent basics, 40 percent “instagrammable modern” and 20 percent fashion pieces. The product has been modernized to “become a lot more premium,” points out Tanguy Mulliez.
Ingo Wilts tells FashionUnited: “When I arrived in February I tried on all the pieces and there was always something that wasn’t right. So we modernized not only the quality but also the cuts to be more competitive with other brands in our industry.”
In 2022, Hechter Paris recorded a turnover of 210 million euros through its worldwide wholesale network (30 percent in Europe, 30 percent in Africa, 15 percent in Asia Pacific, 15 percent in the Americas). The company, which is owned by the German family group Miltenberger Otto Aulbach, is now aiming for growth of 20 percent. The brand’s business model, which is geared towards licensing partnerships, is to be retained.
“In the European market, the ready-to-wear collections are made by ourselves, by our company in Paris and our company in Germany,” explains Tanguy Mulliez. Outside of Europe, in the prêt-à-porter sector, 90 percent of the time it is a development under a license partnership. These two things are very important in the brand’s DNA. The brand has always been international and developed under a license partnership, this is part of our know-how and allows us to guarantee the brand image and identical positioning all over the world. Our business has fallen asleep in some markets, but we never get damaged and always have a coherent development.”
Reopening of a Paris flagship store
Having reorganized its French sales team, the company will initially focus on its native markets: Germany and France. “We intend to reopen a new flagship store in Paris,” announced Tanguy Mulliez.
The company had closed its store on Avenue de l’Opéra after the pandemic phase because the lease was expiring and because “due to the pandemic, the location no longer had anything to do with what we are today,” said the managing director, and further explains that the search for a new flagship is ongoing (planned opening in early 2024). In the course of this, the concept for shops and showrooms was also revised.
New openings are also planned in Germany. Distribution is denser here than in France, but that won’t absolve the company from planning new outlets, either on its own or through partners, Mulliez said.
Finally, the company has set itself the goal of transitioning to the status of a company with a message by 2025. For several years, the brand has been offering products with the name “HEco”, which want to be more responsible from an ecological point of view, but today only make up 20 percent of the collection. “We have continued on this path step by step, but only from the second half of the In 2021, this aspect received a much stronger impetus when we participated in the corporate climate convention, which allowed us to consolidate and accelerate our CSR policy and, above all, the ecological transformation”, explained Tanguy Mulliez to take place soon. Make markets more dynamic.
This translated and revised post previously appeared on FashionUnited.fr.