Scotch & Soda opens new US stores, targets leading department stores in France

By

Olivier Guyot

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jan 18, 2018

Dutch fashion brand Scotch & Soda is making a strong push for the US market. At the end of December 2017, it opened a nearly 250 m2 store in Brooklyn, at 76 Front Street, only three months after opening a shop in Manhattan's South Street Seaport district. The Brooklyn store was the brand's thirty-second in North America. 

At the same time, the brand controlled by Kellwood and Sun Capital Partners is very active in Europe. In France, it recently opened stores in Dijon and in the Bercy Village district in Paris.

Scotch & Soda's French subsidiary, established two years ago, also added to its management team in early January, by putting Sébastien Coutellier in charge of key accounts, which were previously handled from the Amsterdam headquarters. Scotch & Soda is already present at the Citadium Caumartin branch in Paris, and wants to expand its business with local department stores. Since last October, it is available again at Galeries Lafayette branches. These are the kind of major names which Coutellier, currently at the Premium trade show in Berlin, having attended Pitti Uomo 93 in Florence last week, is keen to grow Scotch & Soda's business with.

He knows the landscape well, since in the last four years he was active in the same role at PVH France for Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, having previously worked eight years at Hugo Boss. After joining Scotch & Soda's French subsidiary, which until now only focused on direct retail sales, Coutellier reports to Camillo Testi, International Sales Director for southern Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

For the 2016-17 fiscal year, Scotch & Soda reported a revenue of €335.6 million, up 3%. The company lead by Dirk-Jan Stoppelenburg posted a €1.1 million loss in the same year, the result of its retail channel investment, according to a press release. In 2016-17, direct retail sales grew by more than 22% over 2015-16, reaching €90.7 million, and the e-tail business gained 7.3%, at over €41 million. By contrast, wholesale revenue declined by 4.6%, down to less than €201 million.