Bucking the trend - the big comeback from Marc O'Polo

In the first television commercial in the company's history, Marc O'Polo comes across as extremely international.

Bucking the trend - the big comeback from Marc O'Polo

In the first television commercial in the company's history, Marc O'Polo comes across as extremely international. Young people in fashionable clothes roam through a mountain valley that could be in Canada. In English, they reflect on a future worth living for their unborn children.

For the Marc O'Polo brand, the global future is much closer. September will already be a crucial month for them: fashion from Bavaria will then be available in large department stores in Canada, Denmark, Italy, Spain and Greece. Company boss Maximilian Böck wants to fill the idealized television images with life.

So far, his strategy is working: Marc O'Polo had sales of more than half a billion euros for the first time in the fiscal year up to the end of May. Sales increased by 35 percent to 592 million euros, said Böck WELT.

Two years ago, the 33-year-old took over the management of the company that his father Werner Böck had built up. The son wants to make Marc O'Polo a global brand, just like his father had planned. And – no less ambitious – to reach more younger customers again. However, Maximilian Böck started in difficult times.

First of all, the 115 own shops had to close temporarily during the pandemic. Then came inflation: the German fashion trade is currently registering a ten percent drop in sales because customers first save on unnecessary expenses. Nevertheless, Marc O'Polo seems to emerge as one of the winners from the crisis in the German fashion industry, which has driven well-known brands such as Strenesse and Gerry Weber into bankruptcy.

There are mutliple reasons for this. For one thing, Marc O'Polo opened fewer stores than some of its competitors in the 2010s and so suffered less from the subsequent decline in pedestrian zones. On the other hand, Marc O'Polo is more expensive than, for example, Tom Tailor and Esprit - two German brands that have had problems in recent years because they were crushed between the cheap chains and the premium brands. "Our positioning in the premium segment is paying off," says Böck. He wants to offer more expensive parts - but without losing his regular customers. He wants to compete with brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Boss.

Boss in particular is currently a role model: Despite the stock market slump, the share has gained ten percent since the beginning of the year. The brand from Baden-Württemberg has revised its appearance and has been gaining new customers ever since.

Böck is also tackling the rejuvenation of his brand. “This is extremely important. We don't want to grow old with existing customers," he says - a process that critics say had already begun. After all, the customers are on average in their early 50s. Böck is therefore strengthening the more casual denim collection and letting the market researchers observe how many younger customers the brand is winning.

In fact, this area and the men's collection, which has been underrepresented up to now, grew the most in the past year. It also helps with younger customers that Böck positions the brand as “sustainable”: from 2025 it should be climate-neutral.

In order to make this known to retailers, Böck presented the brand for the first time at the fashion fair in Florence with its new concept. He recalled the Scandinavian roots, which should give credibility to the more fashionable appearance. The brand was founded in Stockholm in 1967 before the German sales partner Böck gradually took it over and finally relocated to Stephanskirchen in Bavaria in 1997.

Thanks to this company history, Maximilian Böck can build on dealers in 60 countries when it comes to internationalization. Last year he expanded his own online shop to 18 additional countries. He also opened new showrooms for contact with regional retailers and a flagship store in Paris. “But we don't invest in gimmicks. The Paris store will also have to be self-supporting in the medium term,” warns Böck. Despite the investments in growth last year, the company has become more profitable. However, Böck does not name specific profit figures.

The young boss is also benefiting from the completed restructuring work of a man who was brought to Stephanskirchen by the chairman of the supervisory board, Werner Böck, in 2017 after sales had fallen for the first time: Dieter Holzer, longtime boss of Tom Tailor, initiated the strengthening of the denim line and continued more on abroad - for example on the licensing business in China, where the brand is represented by a partner.

In the next twelve months, his successor Maximilian Böck wants to decide how Marc O'Polo can start in the USA - probably also depending on the success in Canada. In addition, he must regulate the future of the once important business in Russia. The shops there are currently closed, but the final withdrawal has not yet been decided.

That's not the only problem. "Increasing raw material prices, delivery problems and changing consumer sentiment are affecting business in the current year," says Böck. He hopes that customers in the core market of Germany will quickly become more optimistic again - after all, the slump in sentiment in the foreign markets is less severe. He therefore expects growth in the “near double-digit percentage range” for the current financial year, he says.

At least in terms of fashion, Böck promises a sure mood lifter: next year more bright colors will come into the collection.

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