Gant (clothing brand)

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Gant

logo
legal form Aktiebolag
founding 1949
Seat Stockholm
management Brian Grevy, CEO
Patrik Söderström, Global Sales Director (since 2016)
Thomas Dunaker (CFO)
Number of employees 274 (2007)
sales approx. 870 million euros (2015)
Branch retail trade
Website https://de.gant.com

Gant (own spelling: GANT ) is a Swedish fashion company with American roots owned by the Swiss retail group Maus Frères Holding .

Founded in 1949 by Bernard Gantmacher, the company was originally based in New Haven . In 1999 the American parent company GANT USA was bought by its Swedish partner company. Since then, the group of companies has been managed by Gant Company AB , over 96% of which has been owned by the Swiss Maus Frères Holding since the beginning of 2008 .

history

The company's founder Bernard Gantmacher, a Ukrainian , came to New York as an immigrant in 1914 and was called Berl Gantmacher like many other Jewish immigrants before he Americanized his name. He got his first job in a shirt store in Manhattan, where he sewed collars. It was there that he met his future wife. She was a specialist in buttons and buttonholes and worked for the same company. After Gantmacher returned from military service during World War I, the couple married and he and his business partner Morris Shapiro founded the Par-Ex Shirt Company . They worked on a sub-supplier basis and sold their shirts to other brands in the country. Gant's trademark became a “g” in the corner of the shirt. In 1927 the company moved to New Haven, Connecticut. The couple had two children, Marty and Elliot, born in 1921 and 1926. Both returned to the family business after graduating from the University of Connecticut and convinced their father to make shirts for his own brand. The GANT label was founded in April 1949. After the death of their father in 1955, the Gant brothers took over management of the company.

An important detail of the Gant shirt was and is the button-down collar , a novelty from England and brought to the USA by Brooks Brothers in the 1890s, which became increasingly fashionable. In the 1960s, Gant was temporarily the second largest shirt manufacturer in the world.

Gant becomes Swedish

In 1968 the Gant brothers sold the company to Consolidated Foods (since 1985: Sara Lee ), but retained shares in the company. In 1971 the company launched its first sportswear line on the market, and in 1974 it called on the brand Rugger (dt. Rugby and rugby player) to life. 1979 Gant became a subsidiary of the apparel maker The Palm Beach Company of Cincinnati and gave his operation in New Haven. From 1981, Gant conquered the international market when Pyramid Sportswear from Sweden was granted permission to design and market Gant outside the USA. Initially, Pyramid only offered the Gant label in Sweden, but then quickly expanded on an international level.

1995 bought Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) Gant in the US by the insolvent sportswear manufacturer Crystal Brands, Inc . PVH held a 25% stake in the licensee Pyramid, which operated more than 50 Gant stores worldwide in the mid-1990s. In 1997, Pyramid opened the first Gant store in the United States on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan . Phillips-Van Heusen sold Gant in 1999 to the licensee Pyramid Sportswear from Sweden for 71 million US dollars.

Gant becomes Swiss

In the spring of 2006, Gant went public and was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange until the listing on March 20, 2008, when the company was bought by the Swiss retail group Maus Frères.

The parent company Gant Holding AB is part of the Gant Company AB and in turn various regional companies such as Gant Sweden AB , Gant UK Ltd. or Gant USA Corporation . For Germany there was a general importer, Duetz Fashion GmbH from Holzwickede , until Gant bought Duetz Fashion GmbH and Duetz Einzelhandels GmbH in January 2018 and transferred them to GANT DACH GmbH. The Gant management was headed from 2007 to 2014 by the Dutchman Dirk-Jan Stoppelenburg as CEO. He was followed by the former North America manager at Adidas , Patrik Nilsson and, from June 2018, Brian Grevy, who had been CMO at Gant since 2016. From 2007 to 2009, the Scot and former Escada designer Brian Rennie was chief designer at Gant. Rennie was followed in 2010 by the American Bob Andrews, a former Ralph Lauren designer. In 2012 Christopher Bastin, who had been with the company since 2004, took over the role of creative director. Bastin left Gant at the end of 2015. Since the beginning of 2016, the British Matthew Wood, a Gant employee since the beginning of 2015, has been the creative director of the Gant fashion house. At the beginning of February 2019, Karen Vogele took over the creative management of Matthew Wood as Executive Vice President Product & Design. Christopher Bastin returned to GANT in October 2019 as Global Artistic Director. Patrik Söderstrom, the former COO and now the new CEO, has been since February 2020, succeeding Brian Grevy, who is leaving the company and returning to Adidas.

Collections

Until 2015, the Gant collections for women and men were divided into the main line Gant (formerly GNH Gant New Haven ), the younger, jeans-heavy label Gant Rugger and the more elegant, higher-priced Gant Collection (formerly Elliott Gant , named after Bernard's son ). In addition, from autumn 2010 to spring 2015 there was the fashionably sporty Gant by Michael Bastian collection in collaboration with the New York fashion designer of the same name . In 2015, a rebranding was carried out under CEO Nilsson. Since then, the company has presented itself as the House of Gant with the fashion lines Gant Originals , Gant Rugger and the newly created Gant Diamond G collection; all for women and men. The latter focuses on shirts and blouses. There are also collections for children and babies as well as for home use, shoes, glasses, watches and a fragrance range .

The products are available in 750 Gant boutiques around the world and at 4,000 selected retailers (as of 2015).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://fashionunited.de/nachrichten/lösungen/gant-ernennt-brian-grevy-zum-neuen-ceo/2018061225608 , June 12, 2018
  2. ↑ https://de.fashionnetwork.com/news/Gant-ernennt-neuen-Finanzvorstand,1007981.html , August 28, 2018
  3. ↑ Born in 1949 . Gant. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b c Gant Returns to New Haven; Downtown Retail Store to Open This Fall . New Haven Register. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  5. ^ The Start of a Long Journey . Gant. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  6. ↑ a b Elliot Gant, Marketer of the Button-Down Shirt, Dies at 89 . The New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  7. ^ GANT: The Hip and Historical Brand . Envision Magazine. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  8. ↑ The GANT story. Retrieved February 4, 2015 .
  9. ^ A b Co-Founder of Gant Elliot Gant Has Died . Sportswear International. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  10. ^ Gant Co-Founder Elliot Gant Passes Away at 89 . FashionMag. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  11. ^ Crystal Brands, Inc. History . Funding Universe. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  12. ^ Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation History . Funding Universe. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  13. ^ Metro Business; For American Chain, Its First US Store . The New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  14. ↑ Pyramid Partners Collar Grant: Phillips-Van Heusen Corp ... . The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  15. ^ Maus Frères acquires Gant . Retail Week. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  16. ^ Maus Frères Acquires Gant . Financial Times. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  17. ↑ https://fashionunited.de/nachrichten/business/gant-ab-stockholm-uebernnahm-gant-germany/2017102723269 , October 27, 2017
  18. ↑ Textile Industry: New at Gant: Michael Bastian  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (January 14, 2010)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.textilwirtschaft.de  
  19. ↑ Melan Gropler: Gant CEO: We Are Born and Known as Shirtmakers . Sportswear International. September 23, 2015. Accessed August 1, 2016.

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