Dutch fashion brand Scotch & Soda wants to expand a lot, thanks to a show during New York Fashion Week. It hopes this will help double the company’s profit and turnover within the next three years.
First major marketing campaign
Scotch & Soda’s turnover should reach 750 million euro and its operating income should grow to 100 million euro in the next three years, partially because of more store openings of its own. The definitive breakthrough should come on the back of the collection’s presentation at the New York Fashion Week.
Germany will become the engine of its expansion as Scotch & Soda targets at least one new store every month for the next three years there. Currently, it has 20 stores of its own and another 1,000 points of sale in Germany.
It will also launch a major marketing campaign in June, which is a radical shift in strategy for the brand. “We used to have a low-profile tradition, part of the Scotch identity. We create beautiful things, but we never had a PR or marketing division. For years, our goal was to be a brand of whispers, of word of mouth”, CEO Dirk-Jan Stoppelenburg told De Financiële Telegraaf. However, the company will now change its stance, for its first collaboration with an advertising agency.
Owner Sun Capital, currently under fire in the Netherlands for the V&D bankruptcy, has approved the growth plans as well. However, Dirk-Jan Stoppelenburg is sure Sun Capital will not get a larger stake in the company. “If you become too large, money-focused people may be tempted to rehash the old successes, because it may seem financially interesting. If you become too large, it becomes a balancing act, like at Ralph Lauren. We will not reach that point for years.”
