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German Brax will take control of ten of its eighteen Belgian stores next year. Starting in 1995, the German clothing chain left management in the hands of fashion distributor ARW Retail.
Own management
Change in the Belgian market and the increased importance of omnichannel are the most important reasons for Brax to take control of these stores, according to a press release. In the past 23 years, clothing wholesale company ARW Retail, which launched its own chains of monobrand stores in 2007 (with Fred Perry and Gerry Weber), operated Brax’ brand in Belgium..
“ARW Retail made Brax’ name in Belgium and we thank them for it”, Brax CEO Stefan Brandmann said. “We have decided to launch our own company to manage our Belgian division after a mutual discussion. This will allow us to follow the situation at close hand and to use every channel in Belgium.”
Seamless transition
ARW Retail will continue to manage eight stores, but will be directly backed by Brax’ franchise stores. In essence, things will not change too much for the wholesale company: its entire Brax team will join the new company and the staff from its own stores will also move to Brax.
“We will continue with a seasoned sales team, which is an asset for our omnichannel strategy we wish to deploy even further in Belgium”, international sales director Nils Schrahe said. Belgium is the fourth country where Brax took full control of the distribution, following the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria.
Brax had a 2016 turnover of 308 million euro and revealed a 1.5 % turnover increase in June, compared to last year. Belgium is the German clothing retailer’s most important international market. It generates 28 % of its total turnover in foreign and online stores.
