Competitive fashion retail: "Sometimes you have to do the opposite"

Mona Lenz and Edi Pesendorfer can take a deep breath. The entrepreneurial couple moved their two shops from Spittelwiese to Graben in downtown Linz last week and want to do it again with two fashion shops in one. This takes courage, because the fashion trade is a risky industry. The past few years have also shown this.

After the slump during the pandemic, demand has increased again, and market observers from Kreutzer Fischer and Partner expect a real increase of 2.4 percent to 10.7 billion euros in 2023. Almost half of this is women’s fashion, a quarter is men’s fashion and the rest is children’s fashion and shoes.

Full warehouses, little liquidity

But many fashion retailers struggled because they bought too much during the upswing and were then left with expensive inventory. The result was liquidity bottlenecks and a series of bankruptcies. And that probably won’t be over for a long time. In Germany, the large chain Peek & Cloppenburg (P&C) had to file for bankruptcy last year. P&C’s sister company in Vienna has of course already completed the restructuring process and is in good spirits again. P&C is even expanding in Austria. Yesterday, Thursday, a 2,300 square meter store with 25 employees was opened in Gmunden’s SEP shopping park. It is the fashion chain’s 14th shop. Number 15 is to follow this year.

But how can you be successful in fashion retail? P&C sales manager Neofit Vasilev and Gmunden branch manager Lisa Spivak trust in a multi-channel concept, as they told OÖNachrichten at the opening in Gmunden. This is a mixture of stationary retail and online shopping. “You can also try and buy all the products in Gmunden that you can find in the Weltshop on Kärntner Straße,” says Vasilev.

P&C sells 70 percent third-party brands and 30 percent its own brands. This allows a wide range of products to be created, from cheap goods to luxury items. P&C is represented in 16 countries with 160 stores and 16,000 employees. This size makes it easier to balance supply between branches with different demand.

Mona Lenz and Edi Pesendorfer move in a completely different dimension. “We appeal to those who value good advice, know-how, shopping experience and sustainability,” says Pesendorfer, who worked for years as a field representative and wholesaler in the industry. His partner Mona Lenz completed an apprenticeship as a milliner (hat maker) after working at the Haslinger.Keck advertising agency and then started her own business. “Back then I was given half a year to survive.”

“There are one to two percent of the population who could be interested in our goods. We have found this niche and we are addressing it. Also because we don’t do what others do. Sometimes you have to do the opposite. When everyone sends emails “, you have to write letters,” says Pesendorfer, who primarily sells Italian brand clothing.

Your business is a meeting place for people and also part of a network. Anyone who buys a shirt is referred to a friendly baker or bookseller. “And now three generations shop with us.”