Pepe Jeans London
Pepe Jeans London is an originally British fashion company whose headquarters have been in Spain since the mid-2000s . Pepe Jeans was founded in 1973 by the three brothers Nitin, Arun and Milan Shah in London and is now one of the leading denim brands worldwide. In addition to jeans , Pepe now also produces clothing lines for women, men and children, as well as its own shoe line.
history
The three brothers Nitin, Arun and Milan Shah ran a fashion stand in Portobello Road Market in West London. There are different statements about the nationality of the brothers: They should come from Kenya or Nigeria . In 1973 they founded “Sholemay Ltd.” in the trendy Notting Hill district. According to the company, the three wanted to own “the perfect jeans” that stood out from the gray, anonymous mass-produced jeans that they couldn't find anywhere. The three brothers then designed and produced their own models. After successfully entering the business, they changed the name to the easier to write and memorable name "Pepe Jeans". As early as 1975 they were selling their jeans in four London stores.
In 1980, Pepe Jeans was the UK's most successful jeans brand . From this time the company became known all over Europe and expanded to India in 1989 .
In 1991, a consortium led by textile manufacturers Silas Chou and Lawrence Stroll from Hong Kong , who had acquired a majority in the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation in the late 1980s , began buying up Pepe shares. In 1993 the group took over 80% of the Pepe shares and delisted "Pepe Jeans Group PLC" from the London Stock Exchange. With that, the Shah brothers left the company. Pepe subsequently produced and sold the jeans lines of the Tommy Hilfiger brand, among other things . In 1998 Tommy Hilfiger took over the American Pepe subsidiary "Pepe Jeans USA, Inc."
In the 1990s “Pepe Jeans Deutschland GmbH” was located in Ratingen . In 1995 the administration was moved from London to Amsterdam and "Pepe BV " was founded. In 1998 the British investment company "3i" joined Pepe Jeans. In 2005 the Spanish Torreal Group took over the Pepe Jeans brand for 50 million euros at 40% from "3i" and other shareholders. Since the entry of two investment funds in 2010, one of which belongs to the LVMH Group, 31% of the shares in Pepe Jeans have been owned by Torreal, and almost 30% are held by the investment funds. The Spanish Pepe company operates under the name of “Pepe Jeans SL ” with its headquarters in Sant Feliu de Llobregat , while the group company based in London is called “Pepe Jeans London Limited”.
In 2006, Pepe Jeans bought the British fashion brand Hackett London , which has since made around 25% of the total turnover of "Pepe Jeans London Ltd.". The annual turnover of Pepe Jeans in 2009 was EUR 347.3 million with an EBITDA of EUR 51.4 million. As the exclusive sales partner of the Tommy Hilfiger and Esprit brands in Spain and Portugal, Pepe Jeans generated additional license sales of 114 million euros in 2009.
A joint venture with the US leather brand “Coach, Inc.” through the distribution of the brand in Europe was concluded with Pepe Jeans and Hacket in 2010 and dissolved in 2013.
Today Pepe is represented in over 60 countries. The main sales markets are Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy, where Pepe Jeans can be purchased in around 6,000 sales outlets. In Germany in 2014 there were shops in Hamburg , Berlin , Cologne , Oberhausen and Frankfurt am Main as well as outlets in Wertheim , Metzingen , Ingolstadt , Zweibrücken Fashion Outlet and Mülheim-Kärlich . In addition to branches in many European countries, there are also numerous Pepe stores in Portugal, Spain, Belgium and India. There are also stores in Buenos Aires, Mexico, Tunisia, the Middle East and Asia. The company employed around 2,000 people in the early 2010s. Pepe Jeans is currently not directly represented in North America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania.
Manufacturing
Like other multinational brands , Pepe Jeans has its textiles manufactured by companies based in countries with relatively low wages . In 2005 the Turkish company Türküaz / Çakil, which u. a. produced for Pepe Jeans , to protests for better working conditions. The 250 employees reported that they were working in conditions that violated the minimum standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO) . The workers earned 210 euros a month, which is below the poverty line in Turkey. The working hours were 10 hours, 7 days a week. The company's managers were told to shut down the factory should workers organize and join a union.
Web link
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. taken on January 4, 2011
