WHAT'S THE STORY
Females in focus: Holubar has expanded its women’s collection.
HOLUBAR
BACK HOME Holubar, an outerwear and sportswear specialist, has recruited reinforcements for its expansion plans. Patrick Nebiolo, previously managing director of Woolrich, complements the team as shareholder, president, and CEO. He assumes strategic tasks in the company and also handles sales development in the US. In addition, the women’s collection has been significantly expanded for the upcoming season. Text: Kay Alexander Plonka. Photos: Holubar
Holubar, founded in 1947 in the US, has always been particularly popular with mountaineers. The jacket specialist gained worldwide fame in the 1970s and 1980s in America and Europe. Sportswear legend Alberto Raengo revived the brand in Italy in 2010. Now international growth is assured by the investment of a large English fund in Holubar. “The launch of our online store coincided with the opening of the first flagship store in New York, as well as the launch of sales in the US. We are now bringing Holubar back home. The 300 sqm store is located in the West Chelsea district 202
style in progress
of Manhattan on 14th Street. We have the entire building at our disposal. We have set up a warehouse for e-commerce in the basement, the store itself is located on the ground floor, and the showroom and North America headquarters are on the first floor. We are currently considering whether to open pop-up stores or shop-in-shops at central image locations, as we did last year in Paris, for example. Together with Centre Commercial, a shop-in-shop was set up there that is proving highly successful. However, there are no concrete plans for 2020 yet,” says Patrick Nebiolo, the new President and CEO of Holubar. Investments have not only been made in expanding international sales, but also in numerous marketing activities. LADIES FIRST
In the DACH region, Holubar Distribution GmbH, under the management of Thomas Köhler and Tomislav Grajzar, is in charge of sales and customer service. The fashion agency Weiss from Düsseldorf is responsible for
retail partners in Germany, while Switzerland is covered by the fashion agency Schuler from Zurich. As of this season, the Austrian market is in the capable hands of the fashion agency Kranz. “In Germany we cooperate with key accounts such as Lodenfrey in Munich, Braun in Hamburg, Daniels in Cologne, Breuninger in Stuttgart, and Mientus in Berlin. In total, these are the 150 most important customers in Germany. In the future, we plan to accept no more than 50 new customers. Our strategy is to develop a long-term and significantly deeper cooperation with our existing customers. Holubar as a brand – and its collections – have much more potential. For this winter, we have increased the scope of the women’s collection by 50 percent. Thus, the 50 prospective customers will primarily be from the women’s segment, because this is where our biggest development potential now lies,” says Tomislav Grajzar. The collection can be seen in the respective showrooms, at the Pitti Uomo in Florence, and at the Men in Paris.
