Windsor (company)

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Windsor Logo Positiv.svg

windsor. is an international fashion brand for women and men based in Kreuzlingen (Switzerland). The company appears together with the parent company Strellson AG under the name Holy Fashion Group .

history

The Bielefeld company was founded in 1889 by the two businesspeople Leo Roos and Isidor Kahn as a men's clothing factory Roos and Kahn in Bielefeld, whose production focuses on men's outerwear such as coats, trousers and jackets made from still coarse materials such as linen , luster and loden fabrics limited. As industrialization progressed, jackets and suits were added to the range from 1902 onwards .

In 1938, as part of the Aryanization, the weaving mill owner and wholesaler F. Niemann became the new owner of the company and developed it into an industrial company, which the managing partner Günther Klasing took over in 1960. Because of his preference for fine English fabrics, Klasing gave the company the name Windsor Kleidwerk G. Klasing, in reference to the British royal family , and specialized in the manufacture of men's suits and coats - the windsor line. men emerged. Klasing also pushed for collaboration with renowned designers such as Pierre Cardin .

The economic success failed to materialize, however, and the company was regarded as a manufacturer of little current men's suits. In 1970 Klasing sold the company to his school friend Rudolf-August Oetker , but stayed with the company himself. Oetker took over the clothing manufacturer in the course of the development of his conglomerate and significantly changed the profile of the fashion brand in 1977: the first collection of the windsor line. women was launched.

The food manufacturer had the new production and administration facility of today's Windsor GmbH built just a stone's throw from the Oetker company headquarters. However, it was large investments like this that swelled the mountain of debt at Windsor to 15 million marks and ultimately brought the medium-sized company into financial difficulties.

Oetker ended his involvement in the textile industry in 1983. UJ Textil Handels GmbH & Co. KG, owned by the brothers Uwe and Jochen Holy , at that time on the board of the Swabian clothing company Boss , took over the troubled company. The new owners separated from Klasing within a short time, closed the Bad Harzburg coat factory Schmidt & Tischmeyer, which belonged to Windsor, discontinued collections for foreign, less profitable markets and thus brought about the economic turnaround in the mid-1980s. At that time the company employed around 500 people.

As a result of the positive development, the company's own brand policy was further developed. In 1990 the brand's first license was granted for an eyewear collection and the brand expanded to include accessories. For its part, Windsor GmbH took over the license for the designer label Joop! Menswear. In 1997 the first Windsor store opened in Berlin. The current logo has been used since 1999 following a revised branding.

In 2004 Windsor GmbH was integrated into Strellson AG , also held by the Holy brothers . Brand management and marketing of both companies were combined at the Strellson headquarters in Kreuzlingen , Switzerland. In 2005, men's clothing was completely delegated to Switzerland, while sovereignty over women's clothing remained at the headquarters in Bielefeld. The move to Kreuzlingen also followed in mid-2015. The Bielefeld location no longer produces for the market itself; the company's own production facility is now in Portugal .

In Germany, stores are currently (as of December 2018) in Düsseldorf , Wiesbaden , Munich , Hamburg, Bremen and on Sylt ; in Austria stores are operated in Salzburg and Vienna , and windsor. represented with one shop each in Merano and Paris.

Brands

The company appears together with the parent company Strellson AG under the name Holy Fashion Group . These include the brands strellson , JOOP! and windsor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. In a new guise. Manager Magazin, archived from the original on May 1, 1988 ; Retrieved March 18, 2014 ((Abstract)).
  2. Strellson leads Windsor - Holy companies now act as a group - Pichler at the top ( memento from July 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in TextilWirtschaft 33, August 12, 2004, accessed on July 2, 2014.
  3. Holy Group: Concentration on core competencies ( Memento from February 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  4. TextilWirtschaft 47 of November 19, 2015, page 58

Coordinates: 52 ° 0 ′ 26.7 "  N , 8 ° 30 ′ 49"  E