The shoe manufacturer Lloyd has just announced that it also wants to position some products in higher prices. Do you think that is the right way?
I can imagine that it is a very promising path. It is important that a representative cross -section of the industry is shown. I always hear: When we raise our prices, the end users go to the providers of entry -level price. However, I could imagine that even they would be happy if the prices developed upwards because they fight with the same cost developments. And there are large companies that already operate a trading up. These are clear evidence that a trading up in the shoe area also makes economic sense. Increasing prices is only one aspect. I stay with it very clearly: our dealers also need better margins. And that means that industry has to understand very precisely that it is about higher tension. And nothing has changed in the past few years – I don’t just speak for the shoe industry.
You have explained that changes in the sports industry are noticeable with regard to attitudes to trade. Do you still need concepts like the sneaker wall?
The sneaker wall remains so important because our dealers receive simple and efficient access to a relevant sneaker range. It is also an important factor for profiling the business model. In addition, we will continue to access our dealers access to the products of the large sports brands via the single account model. Not least because the sneaker is far from dead, but continues to win market shares.
The industry is promoting its D2C strategy. It is argued that there are fewer and fewer traders. Is this a problem for working between trade and industry?
There are prominent examples – keyword sports industry – that clearly communicate that direct transactions are limited. The brands thus pursue direct exchange with the end consumer, they want to create and play communities. But from sales, direct-to-consumer will not grow massively. In studies, we see that the direct to consumer share in 2030 will be around 10% of sales. Today it is 9.5%. There are always one or the other who is very prominent and maybe with a big one
Share of sales acts. But there are clear signals from the sports area that specialist retailers are an important partner. I am convinced that the direct business will not go away. But it is also not the coffin nail of trade either. One should not forget – and every brand has to be aware – that D2C is a very cost -intensive business model for a manufacturer. It is not the case that you earn golden shoes. The online business in particular is very strong cost pressure.
Can you imagine taking over an established shoe brand and building up as an own brand of the AnwR Group?
This is currently not the focus in our strategic considerations. We have our own brands Longo, Move by Longo, Natural Sense and Witeblate, so we offer our dealers good margins and exclusivity. The brands certainly have to gain awareness, but we are working on it. It would not be enough to acquire a brand. You have to maintain brands, collections have to be developed. There are a lot of resources hanging on it. Our focus is clear: it is about data, digitization and also about personal exchange with our dealers. A cooperative lives from people and we work as people for our dealers, for people out there. It is important to us that we do not forget the people behind the many digital topics that we always communicate. The more digital and efficient we are in the tools, the more time we have for personal exchange with our dealers. That’s why I’m already looking forward to our Retail Beats on tour from May 25th to 27th in Maastricht.
We come to the topic of trade fairs that the industry has recently very busy. There was a call for a large, early start fair. Now the trade fair occasionally seems to be becoming smaller. How do you judge that?
At the time, the discussion came from the cooperation idea of AnwR and Sabu. At that time we considered that it would be a very good cooperation area to put an order fair for the industry. Here, too, the cost pressure is immense for everyone involved. Communication at the time was not entirely happy and the feedback on the idea was rather divided. Then the #schuhandkunft initiative took up the topic with the idea that the market actually needs a kick -off fair. Many good things have arisen in the initiative, but no industry solution has been found in the trade fair area because the interests are too different. It is true what you say: Actually less it takes, it takes more concentrated events, and now we have so many announcements that you hardly keep an overview. I am convinced that the market will regulate the exhibition topic. As far as our role is concerned, I am very clear: I see in the area of order fairs in combination with our Order Center O1 Arcade (new name of the original order center, editor’s note) and O1 Brand Cube as the leading location in the future. The sports and also the shoe industry are currently consolidating the sales network. There you are looking for performance locations. One thing is clear that we will continue to invest in the campus as an AnwR Group. The fact that we opened our trade fairs for everyone was a logical consequence. At the same time, it plays an important role in the assessment of the location for our partners. We were now also able to welcome well -known large European dealers to us. And I’m pretty sure that we will remain the relevant order location. Measuring must be efficient and at the end of the day calculable for retailers and manufacturers. In the end, industry has to earn money. And she does that with us. For this reason too, I look very positively into the future.
Future is a good keyword: what do you expect for 2025?
We make the trade successful! We wrote this very thickly into the task book. We see ourselves as possible maker organization and will rethink trade. In addition to the important bank -supported central regulation, we have already further developed numerous products and services that actively support our partners. This includes our wholesale business, the Brandcockpit for industry and the commercial cockpit for trading with reliable market data for optimized control of the business models. This is part of successful trade and that’s why we will continue to invest in the data. Much will take place in our consulting platform. Here we develop new, scalable consulting models. Today we already offer the 360 ° advice successfully and work on a retail academy, through which we will develop and offer training and consulting services across industries. In addition, we proactively network when looking for personnel and succession. Our task is to support the studies of all industries in such a way that they are able to transform the digital age individually. This is demanding enough, because one is the tools, the other is the market speed. In all of this, we do not want to presume that we understand the business better than our dealers. In my view, the key to success is the individuality of our dealers. We need attractive and profitable business models – also for new entrepreneurs! We will also focus on this.
What economic development do you expect for 2025?
It remains challenging, both for the shoe trade as well as for leather goods and sports. I don’t assume great growth. I forecast a small growth, around 2%. I currently don’t see a strong tailwind for the trade. And that is primarily due to the political and economic framework. These are currently very fragile and difficult to assess.
