In the last weeks, a personal carousel turned at German denim brand Timezone, after Head of Marketing, Sven Schlager, has left and also CEO Uwe Kauert will leave the brand based in Bavaria. Now Wolfgang Endler, founder of the brand, will return as CEO of the company in the beginning of 2017. Here, he talked about the future course of Timezone.
In which way are you, Mr Endler, going to continue the present course?
The course we have pursued within the last 3 years, with a sharper focused and much clearer brand appearance and assortment is something I definitely want to continue and refine, because I am still convinced the brand concept we have developed last year is right and should not be changed. Timezone will not forget its roots nor its sovereignty and will remain a brand that offers fashion and showpieces for ‘real people in every Timezone’. It’s authentic and independent appearance on the market is going to be the core of our actions. We will stay or rather intensify focusing on our partnerships. Our own retail still is no option for us, not now and not in the future.
What is going to change at Timezone?
One of our aims is to put the spotlight on the product Timezone itself. With more power and creativity, we plan to continuously develop and improve our product and carve out its sovereignty. We are planning to intensify our relationships to our longtime production partners to improve our products’ quality. At the same time we’re going to concentrate on the needs of our retailers and aim to fit our product and our support to said needs. In the course of this we are going to determine a new direction for our womenswear with a completely new signature. It is our ambition to create a real showpiece collection in this area including styles for every occasion, circumstance, whether it is hiking, dinner at an Italian restaurant or travelling, that are perfect and comfortable for modern women.
How is Timezone going to pursue these things next year?
As I mentioned before, our prime focus is our product. Besides refining womenswear, we are always working to improve our established NOS program for our retailers and to enhance the demand for our pre-order collection through love for the details. We also care to better our retail margin, but I don’t want to name any details at this point. At the end of the day we want to offer our retailers and customers a better value for money. We are also working on an advanced interconnection with our retailers to provide better service and sales. Furthermore we mean to connect stronger with our producers to improve our quality and shipping performance.
For us the collaboration between producer and retailer is key to react properly to changes in the market on an equal and fair level. Therefore we have decided to introduce our new, fully-integrated ERP system next year. This brand-new system is going to improve our support possibilities for our customers distinctly.
What are your plans for your brand? Where do you see Timezone in five years?
It is our plan to continue exactly the way we have done so far. Our work is solid and I do not see any necessity to change something essential. We want to be a medium-sized company that is deeply rooted in its local environment and from this base we want to offer real and worthy fashion to our customers, fashion that can be worn in 2 or 3 years. We don’t want to chase every trend, but we want to be, live and represent Timezone. I think the time has come for real, lasting values to be appreciated in their meanings and that is the time of Timezone. I am very optimistic regarding the next years even though the market is very difficult and full of distortion at the moment.
Read also:
