Leading the way Lloyd

LEADING THE WAY

Lloyd is a leading European shoe manufacturer and offers a diverse range of shoes and accessories for men and women. Philip Yorke talked to Max Mueller, Lloyd’s CEO, to find out more.

When H.F.Meyer founded the company in 1888 he could not have imagined the scale of the success that was to follow. The Lloyd brand name was registered in 1905 and the famous red stripe was introduced in 1968 as a brand identifier of quality and design. In 1983 the company moved into the sports and leisure shoe sector motivated by the boom in training shoes. Soon the sports brand ‘Rocky’ had taken the market by storm and still remains an iconic market leader today.

In 2004 the company launched its first collection of accessories for men and women and this paved the way for the opening of a string of new ‘Concept Stores’ around the world. The future looks very promising for Lloyd with the company going from strength to strength and with new stores opening

worldwide. In addition, Lloyd has recently launched an entirely new shoe concept called the ‘Bio-Extralite’ crossover shoe.

New stores and exports take off

Lloyd opened its first company-owned ‘Concept Store’ in Fashion Street, Budapest, in Hungary in 2007. This launch was the forerunner to many others which have been opened across Europe and the Middle East and which today total more than 50 stores. This includes those in Hong Kong and China, which are owned on a partnership basis.

Mueller said, “We have been very encouraged by the success of our ‘Concept Stores’ and expect to have at least 40 in Germany by the year 2015.Outside Germany, our biggest markets in Europe remain Denmark and the Netherlands although our sales in eastern Europe and in particular Russia and the Ukraine are now showing strong growth. We also have new wholesale operations in the UAE in Dubai and in Saudi Arabia. Our exports continue to do well in other countries too such as Australia and New Zealand where we have wellestablished agents. However, our biggest opportunities for growth lie in the emerging markets of China and Russia.”

Exports driven by quality and style

Quality and design have always been the hallmark of Lloyd Shoes. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that Lloyd turned its attention to developing a collection of Leisure shoes, known as ‘week-enders’.

Lloyd have their own design team but still utilise top design teams from Italy and

Germany for certain collections. To promote its portfolio the company attends International trade fairs such as the GDS fair in Dusseldorf and the MICAM trade fair in Italy. This is in addition to annual exhibitions held in Denmark and Holland.

The company has also been selling shoes successfully in Moscow for more than 30 years, and this is one of the company’s biggest markets outside Denmark as Mueller explains, “We see ourselves as a truly panEuropean shoe designer, manufacturer and wholesaler and we are seeing strong growth in countries like Russia and the Ukraine where the trend is towards the sort of stylish, quality shoes that we are famous for.

“Our designer accessories are also doing well where we have our concept stores and it is worth noting that everything that we produce is quality controlled here and in Romania where our second factory is located. I believe that we are the only manufacturer of quality shoes that still has manufacturing facilities in Germany.”

Crossover shoes

Lloyd have been famous for their ‘business’ shoes since the firm started in 1888. However, the big trend in informal shoe wear has led to a type of shoe being developed by Lloyd that bridges the gap between leisure and business wear. This is called the ‘crossover’ shoe. This new shoe affords more comfort for the wearer and the ability to provide greater shock absorption characteristics. Therefore someone travelling to a meeting can do so in comfort and does not need to change into a business shoe as is often the case at present.

Another remarkable innovation from Lloyd is its ‘Bio-Extralite’ collection. These unique shoes are bio-degradable and bio-compostable. This means that when their useful life is over they can be put in the ground where they will decompose within three months. Unlike traditional shoes which can take up to 300 years to achieve the same result. In fact all of Lloyd’s shoes are made with sustainability and eco-friendly production methods in mind. The company uses water based glues and other eco-approved materials in their shoe compositions as well as managing waste products in the most eco-friendly manner. n