MILAN — For sale or not for sale, Jil Sander is easing into the New Year with action on both the design and financial fronts.
As creative director, Raf Simons gets ready to unveil his first men’s wear collection for the house on Jan. 15. Gian Giacomo Ferraris, chief executive officer of Jil Sander Group, confirmed the company will break even on an operating EBITDA level in fiscal year 2006 and is pushing forward with its restructuring plan. The plan was approved by both the unions and the shareholders a fortnight ago.
Ferraris expects 2005 sales of about 140 million euros, or $168.5 million at current exchange rates, which will be essentially flat against last year when designer Jil Sander was still at the house. The company’s U.S. business is currently up 15 percent, however.
Salient points of the restructuring plan include:
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- Further whittling down Jil Sander’s German manufacturing operations for cost efficiency.
- Doubling the brand’s accessories business in the next two years from the current 15 percent slice of sales by leveraging Prada Group’s leather goods expertise.
- In 2006, introducing a men’s and women’s fragrance with Lancaster, a home collection and relaunching the eyewear collection.
“To avoid doubling up on too many fronts, only 15 percent of the production will stay in Germany,” said Ferraris. “We will keep Jil Sander AG as the holding company and transfer the rest of the operations to our associated firms.”
As reported, Jil Sander Group narrowed its net loss to 9.7 million euros, or $12.3 million, in the first half of its fiscal year, and increased its sales by 3.1 percent to 69.8 million euros, or $88.6 million. Figures were converted from the euro at average exchange rates for the period to which they refer.
The retail agenda includes the opening of stores in Taiwan and Hong Kong this past fall, the opening of a store in Rome by June and the relocation of the London store to a better site. “We closed the 18,360-square-foot windowless store on Savile Row because we’re negotiating a smaller shop on a more prestigious road,” Ferraris said.
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A new store concept is also a priority for Simons. Jil Sander directly operates 16 stores and has 50 franchised ones worldwide.
“When Jil Sander left for the second time, we found the strength to react. We had an existential problem, but we were aided by the fact that our design team, which had returned with Jil Sander, decided to stay,” said Ferraris in an interview at Jil Sander’s whitewashed Milan headquarters. “This allowed us to keep our sales points by guaranteeing continuity in terms of product and quality.”
Ferraris, who worked at Jil Sander between 1995 and 1999, was lured back by the designer six months before she left for the second time in November 2004.
Simons, who joined in May, has recruited his design team and is now working on his men’s show, which will be staged in a new venue that Ferraris describes as impactful, but not too revolutionary. For the past two seasons, Jil Sander opted for low-profile shows, attended only by a crop of top editors.
Simons is further honing his tailoring skills with Jil Sander Sartorial, a made-to-measure service for men introduced earlier this month and available in select Jil Sander stores. In the future, the service could be extended to women.
Lauding the Belgian designer’s fashion sensibility and business acumen, Ferraris described him as the roof on the house’s design team. “Simons is the designer I dreamed of having. He understands the brand’s background and its history. He is very special and had a great respect for the team,” Ferraris noted. “Jil Sander is a medium-sized company with a multinational structure.”