BELINDA Earl, chief executive of fashion brand Jaeger, is currently looking for a store in Manhattan to take the revitalised brand back into the United States, part of a wider strategic plan to expand the company's overseas operations in key territories.
Jaeger, which is privately owned by retail entrepreneur Harold Tillman, has just opened a store in Montreal, marking the start of its return to the North American market. Earl, who was formerly chief executive of Debenhams, said the company is also looking to invest in southeast Asia and is eyeing opportunities in China and India.
The chief executive, who has an undisclosed stake in Jaeger, visited Glasgow last week to unveil the new Jaeger Black label, a sub-brand with a more luxurious and aspirational focus than the core brand and previous subbrand Jaeger London.
Earl, who joined Jaeger in September 2004, has increased revenue from additional lines including shoes and accessories and is looking at other opportunities to increase the product range in areas such as homeware, where Jaeger currently only has a limited offering.
She is among a small band of highflying female fashion executives who have been hired to breathe new life into once-leading brand names. The success of former Burberry chief executive Rose Marie Bravo in turning around the fortunes of the Burberry brand was followed by Kim Winser's success in making Pringle trendy again.
Now Angela Ahrendts, formerly of the Liz Claiborne and Donna Karan labels, is following in Bravo's footsteps as chief executive of Burberry. There she faces the challenge of restoring some of the exclusivity of the brand's appeal after the damage caused to it when it was adopted as a "chav uniform".
Meanwhile, Winser has taken on a fresh challenge of restoring the fortunes of Auqascutum, the Japanese-owned brand famous for its classic British raincoats but once all the rage with movie stars.
Sue Whiteley is the fourth female fashion leader to have taken up a brand challenge, taking charge of Louis Vuitton in the UK and Scandinavia last year.
Jaeger is now back in the black after loss-making years, reporting a small profit on worldwide turnover of GBP100 million in the year to end February 2005.
The company has 49 free-standing stores, including shops in Switzerland, Denmark, Taiwan, Korea and Dubai, 55 shops-within-shops and 12 designer outlets, but the UK remains the biggest market in terms of sales, contributing GBP60m to GBP70m of total revenue.
"We're investing heavily back into the business. It's very much a reinvestment story and about restoring the brand to its former status as a desirable fashion brand, " said Earl.
Earl started her career as a graduate trainee in Harrods and then switched to Debenhams in 1985, moving up the ranks to chief executive in 1999 at the age of 38.
She presided over a controversial bid battle for Debenhams which resulted in a private equity consortium acquiring the company for GBP1.7 billion.
When she joined Jaeger, Earl said she discovered it was a respected brand which had lost direction and whose customer base was ageing.
"The offer was not really relevant anymore and it was geared to more mature ladies. Now it's more about attitude than age and our customers are getting younger, " she says.
Her revitalisation strategy has included increasing awareness of the menswear ranges, which account for 30-per cent of sales, and growing sales of footwear and accessories as well as introducing new sub-brands.
Earl has encouraged her design team to draw on the brand's 150-year history by accessing an extensive in-house design archive and it has resulted in print designs from the 30s being given a fresh interpretation for a modern age.
It is vitally important for a brand seeking new life to get the fashionista set to wear your clothes and Earl said Jaeger has scored a few successes. It was the first company to use photographs in its advertising in the 1930s and has enlisted models Fenton Bailey (son of photographer David Bailey) and Jade Parfitt for its current campaigns.
"I went to a party at London Fashion Week and three of the fashion editors were wearing dresses from the Jaeger London collection, " said Earl, adding that celebrities such as TV presenter Davina McCall and ITN newscaster Katie Derham are Jaeger fans.
NEED TO KNOW
THE FACTS Fashion brand Jaeger is expanding into new ranges and more markets as it continues its revitalisation under chief executive Belinda Earl.
BACKGROUND The Jaeger brand traces its roots to 1850, when Dr Gustav Jaeger, a professor of zoology and physiology, developed a theory that humans would be healthier if they only dressed in clothes made of animal hair. In the 1960s it was at the heart of the fashion scene.
NEED TO KNOW MORE?
www. jaeger. co. uk Brand website
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