Month: November 2019

Strong U.S. sales helped buoy Levi Strauss & Co. results in the second quarter, but a full return to growth in the company’s European business isn’t likely until 2007. Phil Marineau, who announced last week that he would depart as president and chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based denim giant at the end of the year, said: “Our net sales in Europe began to trend up in the second quarter,” and leading the search for a new president for the region. “I’m encouraged by these trends, but we still have a lot of work to stabilise sales.”

Earnings for the three months ended May 28 shot up 50 percent to $40.2 million, compared with $26.8 million in the same period a year ago. However, the improvement was largely the result of a one-time income tax benefit stemming from a change the company made in the ownership structure of some of its foreign subsidiaries. U.S. sales of the core Levi’s brand and its Dockers division prevented a downturn in Europe that has persisted since early 2005 from weighing too heavily on results. Revenues for the quarter fell 0.9 percent to $953 million from $961.6 million in the year-ago period. Licensing revenue dropped 9 percent to $16.3 million from $18 million. Sales slipped 0.7 percent to $936.7 million from $943.7 million.

The U.S. Levi’s brand increased 2.1 percent to reach $251.9 million compared with $246.6 million. Robert Hanson, president of the U.S. Levi’s brand, said the growth was significant given recent store closings because of retail consolidation. The growth, however, was driven by the men’s and young men’s segments, while the junior category “is struggling,” Hanson said. “We’re growing in all regions except Europe,” said Hans Ploos van Amstel, chief financial officer. Marineau shed more light on some of the difficulties in the region that trimmed European sales 17 percent during the quarter to $196.5 million from $237 million.

“The key here is to turn around the European Levi’s business,” Marineau said. European retailers “pre-book” orders, he said, and the difficult retail environment, combined with what management believes may have been a poor selection of product mix by retailers, has resulted in smaller orders being placed. “Once you sort of fall down, it takes two to three selling seasons to get up and running again,” said Marineau, adding that the company is in its second season of “really terrible pre-booking.” For the first half, earnings rose 26.9 percent to $94 million from $74.1 million. Revenues fell 3.4 percent to $1.91 billion from $1.98 billion. Sales declined 3.7 percent to $1.88 billion from $1.95 billion.

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High street fashion chain Morgan is going back to its roots for autumn. It’s French roots, that is. The group has revamped its autumn collection to place more emphasis on sophisticated fashion. Morgan’s chief executive Simon Bentley stated: We can’t compete on price so we have to shout louder about our niche.” Key pieces from Morgan’s autumn collection include a ruffle front high-neck blouse, a maxi military coat and a cable-knit jumper dress.

The young fashion retailer is also rolling out a refurbishment programme to refresh stores ahead of more openings. Its Brent Cross and Trafford Centre shop have recently been treated to the new look and Bentley said more refurbishments would follow by the end of the year.

Morgan recently opened a store in York and a Debenhams concession in Oxford. Three of four more concessions will open in Debenhams this year. Bentley said the company was on the lookout for more stores of between 1,400 sq ft and 1,600 sq ft and that the young fashion retailer was considering introducing a transactional website. Morgan has about 20 company-owned stores, 45 franchise stores and 45 concessions in department stores including Debenhams and House of Fraser in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

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Everyone loves a bit of vintage. Especially when they are glorious pieces previously worn by celebrities. Such is the case with the Terrence Higgins Trust charity where celebrities emptied their closets and donated their frocks in support of World Aids Day.

With prices starting at £1, the possibility of picking up a bargain, a rummage through the offerings on the rails at Topshop in Oxford Street last week offered a peek into the wardrobes of some of Britain’s most famous women. Mrs Blai donated a white Burberry trouser suit (size 14) that she wore for a photo call in Downing Street after her husband’s election victory in 2001 and again while posing for the Blairs’ Christmas card that year. It will cost the lucky buyer £100.

Shoppers could snap up an original Chanel beige suede jacket for £160, once the property of model Yasmin Le Bon – if they don’t mind the black felt-tip mark on the left sleeve. Le Bon also donated a vintage Forties-style polka-dot chiffon dress – a bargain at £160 and, amazingly, a size 12, which suggests it was part of her maternity wardrobe.

Other vintage designs that would fetch thousands at auction nestle on the racks alongside less desirable items – including a pair of cast-off Stars and Stripes boxer shorts, a Tommy Cooper-style fez for a fiver and a fetching collection of nylon Seventies nighties (from advisedly anonymous donors). Sadie Frost has contributed a trademark floral baby-doll dress for £65. Model Laura Bailey, photographer Poppy de Villeneuve and the entire Vogue fashion team have also offloaded their out-of-season stock.

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Primark made its mark on London last week when it opened its Oxford Street doors to deliver unabashed, affordable fast fashion to the masses. Less than two hours after doors opened, customers were being let into the packed premises on a one-in, one-out basis. The 70,000 square-foot London store sells clothes for men, women and children, as well as homeware and sells t-shirts for as little as one pound. A shiny, linen coat was one of the best sellers of the day, retailing at just £15.

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Breege O’Donoghue, a Primark director, said: “We knew we were going to be busy, but this has exceeded all expectations. Shoppers carried off their purchases in brown paper carrier bags, which Primark is phasing in to replace plastic bags. Primark is known for its “fast fashion”, which is when catwalk trends are quickly turned into more cheaply priced clothes for the high street. A recent article in the Daily Mail suggested that whilst it is great for consumers to not have to pay extortionate prices for quality goods, somewhere down line in a selling a t-shirt for £1 means somebody is getting exploited.

In December 2006 the charity War on Want revealed factory workers in Bangladesh are regularly working 80 hours a week for just 5p an hour, in potential death trap factories, to produce cheap clothes for British consumers of Primark, Tesco and Asda’s ‘George’ range. War on Want issued these findings in a report called Fashion Victims, based on research among employees at six Bangladeshi factories in the capital Dhaka which employ over 5,000 workers, mainly women, making clothes for the three bargain retailers. Primark is owned by Associated British Foods, the Silver Spoon sugar to Kingsmill bread and Twinings tea group, and has expanded rapidly over the past couple of years, opening stores at the rate of one a week.

Wearing a Chanel corset, gloves and heels, Victoria Beckham on Monday was voted woman of the year at the Glamour magazine awards. She further received the accolade for Entrepreneur of the Year and was hailed as a role model for achieving it all’ at the awards in London.

Glamour editor Jo Elvin did not hold back in praising the diminutive star. She stated: “For the past ten years, Victoria Beckham has been a figure of fascination. She has successfully reinvented herself from pop star to devoted wife and mother, to successful designer and business mogal. Luella Bartley won Fashion Designer of the Year.

Reports earlier this week that Terry Green, Tesco’s head of clothing, was in talks to jump ship to Marks & Spencer, have been invalidated by the supermarket giant. Tesco’s commercial and trading director Richard Brasher told the FT that Green was staying on with the company he joined in the second half of 2005. “Our people always get lots of offfers,” he said. “I would say to them that if they are not being offered jobs by other people, maybe I have got the wrong person (working for me). Terry Green is an employee of Tesco, he was then, he is now and that is it.” Brasher further denied that Green had been convinced to stay with a promotion or pay rise.

News reports had suggested that Green was in talks with his longtime friend and former colleague, M&S’s chief executive Stuart Rose, to head up the retailer’s bloominng fashion division. Neither company would comment on the situation.

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Liberty is planning a major international expansion under the guidance of its new chief executive Geoffroy de La Bourdonnaye. The former Disney and Christian Lacroix executive, who will succeed Iain Renwickas chief executive in July, said one of his top priorities was the international expansion of the iconic British store in the US, the Middle East and the Far East. “The name Liberty is known all around the world, and has not been given justice in terms of its presence in countries like the US and Japan,” he said on Sunday.

De La Bourdonnaye, 50, has been credited with the turnaround at Lacroix. He said it would be priority to return Liberty to profit. His predecessor, Renwick, had managed to cut losses at the company and rescue it from going under. He quit the company after four and a half years in April, when Liberty’s chairman Richard Balfour-Lynn said the company needed a different approach, the FT reported.

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China has declared the EU’s charges on import of leather shoes from that country illegal. It reacted to agreement the EU made on Wednesday to limit the import of cheap shoes from China and Vietnam . During the next two years the EU will charge a fee of 16.5 percent on leather shoes from China and 10 percent on Vietnamese imports. The agreement does not include athletic footwear. The decision was met with resistance from twelve European member states. Thirteen member states were in agreement or had not voted. Nevertheless, the proposal has not been rejected; this would only have been possible if the majority had been against. The terms of the proposal have however been softened. Instead of the initial five years, EU commissioner Mandelson introduced a term of two years.

The import of leather shoes from China increased 1000 percent between 2001 and 2005. Southern European footwear producers are particularly against the import, claiming they are costing them a fortune. One of their main contentions is that footwear producers in China and Vietnam are subsidized by the state.

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The Chinese minister of trade, Chong Quan, said that he would keep a close eye on the results of the fees. He does not believe there are grounds for the action, which he says will harm the rights of the Chinese footwear industry.

High street sales dropped 0.4 percent in September, causing alarm over the strength of consumer spending. Analysts had expected sales to rise 0.3 percent, and blamed a rise in utility prices, less discounting and higher interest rates for the downturn. Despite overall results being 3.8 percent higher than 12 months ago, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) lowered the rate of annual retails sales growth from 4.4 percent in August to 3.2 percent. Consumers are believed to be cutting back drastically following higher spending during the World Cup and the August bank holiday. New data has also shown that mortgage lending is experiencing a slowdown, due to the threat of interest rate increases. However, the CEBR does not believe the decline in sales will continue, with consumer spending generally on the upswing. More likely, utility costs and rising unemployment on the one hand and economic growth on the other will result in more volatility in monthly retail sales than last year.

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Walt Disney wants to return a dash of glamour to its image, and has signed Beyonce Knowles, Scarlett Johansson and David Beckham amongst the stars appearing in a new Disney advertising campaign. Fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz shot the celebrities in various fairytale guises in a promotion for Walt Disney’s theme parks.

Recruited by Disney to promote Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Year of a Million Dreams campaign, Leibovitz persuaded her famous friends to dress up as classic Disney characters. The first images in this ongoing series will appear in the March issues of Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, and GQ, according to the New Yorker.