The journey of Marc O’Polo

Interview with Jan Brinkmann, Director Shoes, Marc O’Polo

Mr. Brinkmann, how did you come to Marc O’Polo?

Jan Brinkmann: In the first conversations with CEO Maximilian Böck and Karl-Heinz Lauterbach, it became clear that such an opportunity doesn’t come along often. The two of them quickly convinced me with their impressive development and potential. Karl-Heinz Lauterbach is also leaving me with a strong team. Given such an opportunity, I wanted to take up the challenge.

What did they both say that made you say, “I have to go here”?

The brand simply has a lot of power, tradition and arouses desire. I wanted to contribute my shoe-specific experience.

How can this shoe-specific perspective help?

I think that growing up professionally in three of the largest shoe companies in Europe, I have seen and learned a lot: how to produce shoes, where to produce them, what the price-performance and marketing should look like. Above all, I can help develop markets. I have spent a lot of time abroad doing business development and have a good feel for how to build businesses and how to adapt to a market. This fits well with Marc O’Polo’s goals.

What are your tasks and in which areas will you be involved?

I am ultimately responsible for all functional elements in the Marc O’Polo Shoes division: development, procurement, sales and logistics. I am involved from the development of the first shoe to delivery. Especially now in the first half of the year I have familiarized myself with our structures in detail in order to get to know all areas. I was also able to get an idea of ​​how stable and self-sufficient the individual teams work. That’s why I can personally get more involved in the areas of sales and product development in the team in the future
optimal support.

How does the difference affect everyday working life compared to pure shoe manufacturers?

Marc O’Polo’s heel is the same at the back, so we’re no different. What’s exciting for me is that we’re involved in a big fashion world. It’s new for me to work in a much larger company with different products such as the casual collections, Marc O’Polo Denim or the licenses. For example, there are a lot more coordinations taking place. But that is also very fruitful and inspiring.

Recently, many retailers had to close. How much does this affect you as a supplier?

The situation is of course tragic. In the German shoe trade in particular, many concepts that have existed for decades, sometimes over several generations, are disappearing. And there are prominent examples where a lot of structure and thus sales have been lost. Of course, this also affects us, and there is no secret about it. But we have always thought about where we are correctly positioned and which partners we work with and which locations can still be served. We select our partners very carefully and they have often remained stable. In addition, especially in the S/S 2024 season, we were able to acquire many new customers who suit us and who had not previously considered us. That’s why I still see good growth on the channel.

What goals do you want to achieve in your new position?

Internationality within Europe is important. This is an important lever for our further development and, above all, there is still a lot of room to grow. In addition to Switzerland, Austria, Benelux and Scandinavia, Spain and Italy are on our expansion list. By the way, this year we are also taking over sales in Switzerland with our own Marc O’Polo company.

If exports are an opportunity to respond to consumer restraint, is the mood in other European countries better?

In my opinion, that’s true, because the mood in other countries often seems better than in Germany. For example, we are currently looking closely at the Benelux market, where there is also a different, functioning retail landscape in medium-sized cities with a good mix and curated retailers that create a good mood among customers. However, Germany is, to a certain extent, a pioneer when it comes to purchasing reluctance; after years of crises, it is now becoming more and more noticeable across Europe.

Karl-Heinz Lauterbach will be jointly responsible for the shoe segment until May 2024. How does the handover process work over such a long period of time?

We’ve been working together for a long time now and we still have a bit of time – and that’s a good thing. We have divided the topics well, he is even more involved in the areas of sourcing and logistics and was recently in Asia. It is a strong commitment from Marc O’Polo to ensure a handover over such a long period of time.