Whistles Brand CEO Jan Severderson Special Report

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P > British high street brand Whistles is the brand of "a href=" "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_s.asp" > British Princess Kate Meader < /a >.

A few years ago, the brand was in a serious financial crisis, and it was not a small test for its chief executive, Jan Severderson (a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_s.asp" > Jane Shepherdson < /a >).

However, with her years of experience accumulated in Topshop and the importance of product and orderly development plan, the brand is gradually out of crisis. Leisure time, < a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_s.asp" > Jane Schaefer dsen /a will be swinging on the swing of horston in the fashion center of East London, perhaps not surprising, because in the early days when she entered the fashion industry, Schaefer dsen was famous for her adventures and her unique smell of pop trends.

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< p > from 1984 to become an assistant buyer of the British high street brand < a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_s.asp" > Topshop < /a >, Jan Severderson spent 20 years on the position of Topshop brand manager step by step, effectively supervising the company's retail, production, finance, human resources and property rights departments.

Under her leadership, the Brand Company has become a world-renowned brand, a symbol of the vitality of the British high street fashion.

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< p > but in 2006, Philip's boss, a href=, "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_s.asp" > Philip Green < /a > announced that after a week's cooperation with Kate Moss (now lifted), Schaefer dresson abruptly resigned.

At the same time, Green said that hiring mousse had nothing to do with Schaefer's decision to leave the company. Xie also denied any rumors.

But her departure still occupied the headlines of the British press.

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< p > her next move is closely watched by people.

In 2008, after giving advice to Oxfam and the ethical fashion brand PeopleTree, she appeared again and became CEO of Whistles brand.

It's a women's clothing retailer facing the middle market and part of the Mosaic fashion group.

As part of the agreement, it became a separate "management stake" entity from mosaics, giving Schaefer a 20% stake in her company and her partners.

All this is supported by Baugur, a Iceland retail group, with mosaic and Glitnir and Iceland banks.

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P, like Topshop many years ago, Whistles is in urgent need of restarting, and the company's investors think Schaefer de Sen is the right person.

But during the global financial crisis and the banking crisis in Iceland, Whistles was in serious financial crisis.

The a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_s.asp" > Glitner < /a > went bankrupt in 2008 and was nationalized, which gave the government of Iceland the ownership stake in Whistles.

Then, in February 2009, Baugur's debt investment group collapsed.

Things didn't go according to plan for Schaefer de Sen.

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< p > but she managed to get short-term financing to maintain the difficult period.

In early 2012, when sales grew by a two digit percentage, Whistles managed to buy back most of its shares from the government of Iceland and set up a solid foundation for its growth.

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< p > in her most extensive and in-depth interview since her accession to the Whistles, the reporter gave an exclusive interview with Xie to discuss the progress of the company, understand her views and understanding of the future of fast fashion, and her vision of Whistles in the UK and overseas.

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< p > < strong > overwhelming product is < /strong > < /p >.

< p >: let's start with the result.

In fiscal year 2011, sales increased from 38 million 800 thousand euros to 39 million 900 thousand euros.

Meanwhile, over the past year, your retail sales have increased by two digit year-on-year growth, while online sales have also grown remarkably.

All this seems to be developing in the right direction.

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< p > < a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_s.asp" > Jane Schaefer de Sen < /a > (hereinafter referred to as Jane): this result is good.

The work in 2011 is more about building infrastructure, because you know that when we take over the business, we do not have our own logistics and do not own the IT department.

So we built a huge system, and IT, logistics and warehousing projects took a lot of time.

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< p > sales are growing steadily, and we are satisfied.

We have opened several new stores.

But in fact, all we do is to give ourselves a platform for growth. This is our goal.

We are working hard only at a year-on-year growth rate of 22%, so it is amazing.

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P: Q: what is the main driving force behind this growth? Retail sales in the UK are usually flat, unlike so many new stores you can open.

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< p > Jane: a thing that matters more than anything else is absolutely a product.

Of course, I will say, because I am a product maker, but it is true.

Suddenly, we found confidence.

I thought we could achieve this effect in 18 months, but it took 4 years, so it was longer than I expected.

If you already have a customer base, you can start in that direction, but if they basically say "I don't want anything like that," then you have to compromise.

Even the bravest people in the world will have to compromise.

You can't completely alienate every existing customer.

You must learn to move forward, that is what we do.

Unfortunately, through compromise, we will never develop in the direction we want.

It will only reduce our intentions.

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< p > I think that by establishing good editorials and word of mouth, people will find that we will begin to say, "what is there in fact?"

I really think that this is not only a brand talk, but also a sudden understanding of the product.

This is much better. It also gives us more confidence and is also a real attraction.

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< p >: then, if you want to describe the past < a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_s.asp" > Whistles < /a >, how can we describe it? < /p >

< p > Jane: I will describe it as a slightly unruly, beautiful and slightly maiden brand.

When I first walked into the store, when we just bought this brand, most customers were grey haired.

This is very good. It makes me believe that this is a foundation for senior customers, but I am very worried that no new and young customers will buy this brand.

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P, even from the beginning, we know that we want to change it from what it is now to what it once was -- an interesting, coveted, contemporary brand.

I think it no longer looks that way.

It has lost its relevance.

The trend of the whole decadent culture is quite persistent. Perhaps they mistake a trend as a product characteristic.

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P: what's interesting is that you bring the trend of decadent culture people, and you bring the girl's style.

The real proponents of this trend are Phebe Philo (Phoebe Philo) of Stella McDartney and Croye (Chlo).

But when Phebe Philo took over Croye, she took a completely different approach.

It may be said that the new Whistles aesthetic point is to pursue a similar fashion, simple, customized and professional appearance, but the price is more acceptable.

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< p > Jane: we are a team. We work together for a long time.

This is a common aesthetic that all of us have long enjoyed.

We have always opposed the obvious maiden style and sexy stuff, because it does not match our style.

I think we can create something that happens to fit in with our feelings and make people want to buy it, which is a luxury.

I think there is a lack of such products in the market and not many people do so.

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< p > < strong > the trend of fast fashion will not be reduced < /strong > /p >

< p > Q: for this difficult economic environment, the traditional wisdom indicates that the luxury brand is at the top of the market, and ordinary brands are at the lowest end of the market, such as Primark, which can be said to be super cheap and fast fashion.

But you must stay in the middle. It turns out that it is very useful.

Is traditional wisdom wrong? < /p >

< p > Jane: maybe.

I firmly believe that traditional wisdom is often wrong, and you can prove it.

My team and I have been in this industry for a long time. I think instinctively, we know that some things are lacking and lack some elements that women want.

Sometimes you have to take risks. I think so, depending on your intuition.

We did the degree of Topshop.

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< p > Q: Topshop is the real fast fashion.

You are one of the early supporters of that pattern. What direction do you think it will develop? < /p >

< p > Jane: it will never disappear.

I haven't opened up fast fashion. Fast fashion has been with us for a long time.

When I started working in Topshop, they bought products from British manufacturers and sold them in 4 weeks.

I don't think it will disappear because I believe that when people see something, more and more people want to get them right away. I can not see the immediate weakening of satisfaction.

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< p > Q: when you are in Topshop, it is very close to the product.

It is not very common for fashion executives to participate in product production.

What is your role in product and design? {page_break} < /p >

< p > Jane: I call myself a product maker, but I have never been a designer.

My role is to set up the creative direction of the brand, and then clarify it to the team.

My role is almost the kind of person wandering around the creative direction and making sure that it is still our original direction. It is also my role to ensure that we are moving in a more distant direction rather than lagging behind.

I also provide information to customers to create brand image and position them in everyone's mind.

This is what I want to do. I also need to consider the next step to develop the brand according to the strategy.

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< p > < strong > rational treatment of celebrity effect and expansion < /strong > < /p >

P: Q: since you have already compiled logistics and back-end support, and you have also refined the product, it seems that the next strategy is a very ambitious strategy for opening stores and developing retail businesses in the UK and internationally.

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< p > Jane: in the UK, the storefront portfolio we take over is mixed.

There are some good stores, but some are not very good, and they may not be the right store for the brand.

So we analyze the gap in the UK market, and there is a big gap between London and London's commuter towns and even the big cities of Britain.

So far, we have opened 8 stores this year, and we have confirmed that we have to open 15 other stores in the UK.

We also believe that we opened a flagship store in Dover Street (Mayfair District, London) in mid January, giving us an opportunity to truly display products to international buyers.

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P, internationally, we must march to Japan, because that is the most exciting market.

We have made a small series for the 2013 spring and summer Beams exhibition, and we will sit down and watch it.

It's too early for us to go there directly, so we will first implement the wholesale mode.

But because we are retailers, we can reduce output, and there will always be novelty.

Our sales rate has been between 60% and 70%.

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< p > we have done wholesale in Podium in Moscow for a year. They want us to move to another store, Tsvetnoy central market.

This is great. It's like the future of shopping.

This is a young, dynamic and fast-moving customer.

Last December, our Printemps in Paris also opened a licensed wholesale store. We are looking into the US market.

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< p > Q: let's talk about the so-called "Kate Middleton effect".

It is obvious that the popularity of brands will make people who have not even appeared in Whistles suddenly ask: "what is Whistles?" but I am more interested in understanding the real business impact and the impact on sales. I do not know the extent to which you can track or trace it.

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< p > Jane: in the royal engagement photos, she wears actually the old shirts that we did not sell.

So this really improves the popularity of our clothing, but this has nothing to do with sales. We have more people to visit our website.

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< p > I think the biggest influence is the skirt she wore on the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Anyway, it's a very successful style for us -- printed silk dress.

We sold out all those products that weekend.

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< p > in fact, if we don't do any huge operation, we may have sold out some kind of product, but this product may have only 150 sets.

People will also ask about the tight Whistles dress worn by Bella.

Many of our customers call to ask about this dress.

But for the sake of fairness, every time we make this dress with a different stamp, it is sold out, but I can not say that it raised 50% of our total sales that week, because it did not.

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P: this has always been my assumption, because you can also see these sensational headlines, saying that the Kate effect has 1 billion pounds effect on the fashion industry, but I wonder who came up with these figures? < /p >

< p > Jane: This shows the image of the company's clothing is very good, we are not known by our country.

But she won't succeed overnight because she wears our clothes.

Luckily, she looks good in our costumes. This is a good advertisement, but nothing else.

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< p > Q: So where will Whistles go? < /p >

< p > Jane: we are beginning to expand internationally.

We started in Europe and the United States.

First go into department stores, but don't worry.

I don't want to make any mistakes, and I have to find out which market works well and which is not good.

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< p > in the next 5 years, I hope we will have several stores in American department stores.

I am not sure the necessity of opening so many stores, especially now that the trend of online shopping is getting stronger and stronger.

I think if you are in the right department store, you can have several stores. You don't really need to set up hundreds of stores around the country.

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< p > I think Australia has become a huge market for us, but next year we will leave there.

The online sale conversion is already higher than in any other country.

In the coming year, all of our online sales will double the percentage of total business.

It seems to continue to grow.

We are now redesigning our website and will be launched shortly.

Our current website is very good, but it lacks content. It is basically a sales website instead of more functions. So we have to launch a bigger and more flexible website. I think the Internet is very exciting.

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