The FINANCIAL — Adress, incorporating world clothing brand stores: Celio, Etam, 1.2.3, Gerry Weber, Tom Tailor, Dpam and Joop plans to expand to Azeri and Armenian markets in the near future. Goga Simonishvili, head of the marketing department of Adress, says that at present they are conducting market research in the neighbouring countries and negotiating with their partners there.
In 2010 Adress will add its chain of different brands to the newly constructed trading mall Karvasla in the Nadzaladevi district, Tbilisi. “By this we will be able to get closer to our customers,” Simonishvili says.
“The first brand which we offered Georgian customers back in 2007 was Celio and later we added others. The criteria of choosing brands are based on our company’s strategy to offer brands to customers of middle and upper-middle purchasing capacity.
Q. All the brands incorporated under Adress provide casual fashion for a natural lifestyle. How does your style direction correspond to Georgian customers?
A. The main goal of our brand managers includes selecting fashionable clothes lines to our customers. One can say that Georgians as a rule do not like colourful clothes. However the tendency to always wear black and dark clothing is gradually disappearing.
We try to create a synthesis of our customers’ tastes and modern fashion tendencies.
Q. Which of the brands’ stores under Adress is the bestselling?
A. We have well diversified portfolio, the maximum difference by sales per brand doesn’t exceed 7% the reason for that is our group’s strategy to focus on family offers and give our customers the opportunity to choose clothes in stores placed next to one another. We maximally try to make the whole shopping experience easier for our customers and so have launched a loyalty card system. The majority of our customers, over 75%, are female. Female customers dominate even in the shops that offer only men’s clothing. Over 20% of our total sales are generated from our loyalty card programme and that is a good volume.
Q. Do you agree with the expression ‘the customer is always right’?
A. Actually no one is always right. To tell the truth it can be difficult to take into account the remarks of all customers, but we consider all complaints in a dignified and respectable manner.
Q. Presently Adress’s shops are located in different buildings. Have you not thought of bringing them together in one building so that your customers can enjoy a ‘one-stop shop’?
A. The slogan of our company is – Adress, your shopping address. This motto is proven by the fact that most of our stores are located next door to each other which a) does provide a comfortable shopping experience for our customers, and b) increases the volume of our traffic. We have decided to increase our market share and soon we will be presented in the shopping mall Karvasla too.
Q. In their interview with The FINANCIAL, representatives of Novo Group, incorporating several clothing stores, named Mango the bestselling brand. The alleged main reason for the popularity of Mango was its accessible prices. In your opinion, what is more profitable, to offer low priced or expensive products?
A. Actually, it depends on the goal of the company. It is difficult to say which business is more successful, selling Maserati or Volkswagen vehicles. Some benefit from brands that sell thousands of units a day, and some benefit from selling highly exclusive products.
Q. Which year has been the most profitable for your company and what was the effect of the economical downturn? By how many percents were your sales decreased?
A. We always try to achieve the best results in the following then in present year, Despite the war with Russia and global economic crisis we managed to open 5 new stores in late 2009
Q. Who is your main competitor and what are the main advantages of the brand shops of Adress?
A.. I think that none of apparel companies operating in Georgia can boast by offering unique selling proposition to customers. I can say that competition is not really tough here since this case prevails in Georgia. As for us, we are constantly working on issues like improving offering, service quality, keeping and attracting new customers.
Q. From which countries do you import products?
A. We are importing our products from Germany and France. The clothes might be made in different countries but at the end they are all gathered at central warehouse for a final quality control and only after than distributed to various franchise partners.
Q. One month ago an Armenian businessman opened a branch of the UK clothes brand Next, in Tbilisi. Considering the fact that the Georgian business environment is very international, are you not planning to enter the foreign markets of Georgia’s neighbouring countries too?
A. Presently we are researching two of our neighbouring countries’ markets. Our partners in Azerbaijan and Armenia, representatives from the retail apparel sector, and they are supplying us with useful information and statistics.
Q. Adress offers special loyalty cards to its customers. How many cards have you already launched?
A. Adress Card was a project for our loyal customers that we implemented in November 2009. We have already launched over 2,500cards.. In order to accept an Adress card it is not important to spend any concrete sum. Anybody who purchases something from our shops can ask for an Adress card. .
Q. The founder of Next told The FINANCIAL that he only ever visits other shops for the purpose of observation. Have you paid a visit to Next and what is your estimation of your competitor?
A. Visiting competitor’s shops is common for people involved in this business., so as to be informed of any new services our competitors might offer. As for Next, they have huge resources that can be used successfully. They have a good location, and adequate space inside the shop, so they have good potential.
Q. What will the main challenges for Adress be in 2010?
A. In 2010 our main challenge will be increasing our attention towards our customers based on the results of various satisfaction surveys. In addition we will focus on internet marketing and online shopping.
Q. Does Adress have its own page on facebook?
A. We pay huge attention to social networking. It is only two weeks that we have had our own page on facebook and we already have 1253fans.
Q. What novelties will you be offering your customers?
A. Adress will continue offering novelties to its customers in 2010. We have decided to launch an exclusive offer to our customers. The package includes various packages for newlyweds, as those starting a new family are always in need of any help on offer. If purchasing a wedding dress or suit for a bride or bridegroom or even best man or maid of honour, there will be a special discount card that can be used at beauty salons, tourist companies, bakeries, accessory shops, florist’s and home apparel. So we are offering every type of service that is useful for new couples. As well as that, this discount can be used by any bridesmaid or any other person too. This campaign will be launched from April 12th.
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