Date: 2004/08/20
SITTING IN THEIR JAM-PACKED, BUZZING WORKSPACE, YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE
that just over 15 years ago Moira 0' Reilly and Marcel Joubert's biggest claim to fame was that they made T-shirts. Granted, the T-shirts were good quality and they captured the student market in a significant way, but still. "It all came about through having the vision to find our niche, discovering what we were good at," says Moira.
"It came as an accident because we were in manufacturing, which is a tough industry, and we were wholesaling around the country. We got our first big break in an order for the Vertigo label from Edgars, and it was like, 'Wow, we've made it', and then we got crunched .. , the buyer cancelled our order." She's outspoken in her conviction that the chains have done a lot for the country, "but they've also got a lot to answer for, they've put a lot of people out of business, and we've had a taste of what it was all about." So they started brainstorming, and thought, 'We know the student market, we've both been students', A shop was available in Rondebosch, and even though we were advised against the site we were adamant to make a go of it. So it started from a little bit of desperation, but we turned adversity into success, and we focussed on the site and the product, and the people came, we did amazing turnover." Marketing was by word of mouth, and Moira calls Marcel a 'natural marketer'. "It's his thing,"
she says, "and I think both of us are quite tuned into people. I did an Arts degree, majored in psychology, and it's kept us rooted. It's not about, 'I'm a designer, and what shall I create today?' I think it was Armani who said, 'The biggest mistake a designer can make is not recognising the need for an audience: You need to know who your customers are, you need an audience to succeed, and I think that's what we recognise more than anything else." So they targeted the market they knew best: students. Slowly they started to bring other product in and realised that they were onto something. "We were like, 'This retail thing could work for usl'" says Moira. They opened
the Gardens store two years later, but the really pivotal point in their commitment
to retail was when Hilton Weiner came up for grabs in 1995. "I think it was because of the recession then that no-one else was interested in touching the brand," says Moira. Marcel steps in at this point, "We looked at it and identified the amazing sites in the country up for grabs; we initially didn't see the value in the brand, we wanted to snap up the sites, because the real estate was prime, and we were so passionate about Vertigo, that was our baby." Moira elaborates, "At that stage we were very into the Vertigo mindset, it was street culture, youth culture, and the Hilton Weiner thing was for us on a different planet. We had to learn that." Both Moira and Marcel take the same trip down memory lane: "It was quite intimidating actually, trying to make the transition," says Moira, "and a lot of people looked down on us. People thought
we wouldn't last. Others had been around a long time and a lot of the more established brands didn't want to touch Hilton Weiner ... Bergers hadn't made a success of it, Hilton had left three years prior to our taking it over, so it was as if they thought we were crazy." Marcel likes to use the bumble bee analogy for how they defied the odds against them: it's scientifically proven that the bumble bee can't fly, because its wingspan is smaller than its body - but the bumble bee doesn't know it, so it flies anyway. "So that's kind of what we're about," he chuckles, "it's a kind of a challenge."
Having just acquired 18 Hilton Weiner stores, their first emotion was - depression.
Marcel explains, "We ran around the country looking at the stores, and it was a sad thing to see. This premier brand had deteriorated into a place that lacked the soul of what Hilton Weiner was all about." Moira picks up the story, "But then we realised
it was so bad, any improvement would have been significant. We started to put the love back into it. It was at first a rescue operation to get stock back into the stores and to get the business ticking over." Marcel intercedes with the symbolism that so beautifully describes what transpired: "Berger's had been focused on cost cutting and defensive measures. So when Hilton Weiner started to go off the boil they started
to cut back. Originally, Hilton used to put wonderful fresh apples and flowers in the stores every day and they took all that out. We said, 'We've got to put the apples
back into Hilton Weiner'. Those little touches are so important." The next challenge was to get all the right kind of people back working in the stores. "We worked with the existing people," says Moira, "and it happens by attrition, we've never retrenched in all the takeovers we've had, we don't believe in that. We're about trying to uplift people. Some people refuse to be uplifted, but that's their choice, so that happens naturally." Marcel quotes Moira: "We're in the people business as much if not more than we're in the clothing business." The two emphasise that they're "huge on upliftment and development and taking young people and developing them into something. Says Moira, "It's part of the vision we've got for South Africa, and it's linked to why we've decided to stick it out here and why we're sinking roots. That whole entrepreneurial culture has been missing for some time. There are too many people thinking 'Somebody else is going to do it for me, wait for something to come along; and that's not what's going to grow the economy in the country. So I think it's a huge contribution we can make, because we are by nature entrepreneurs." Moira elaborates,
"I abhor everything to do with big corporate environment, and layers, so we've had a whole restructuring and rethink at the beginning of this year, and we want to be what we've always been about, and that's a community." Now they concentrate on creating the 'campus' environment. "Nothing must be too big, everything must be down to the unit of one, driven teams, independence, individuality, it's that whole diversity thing. 1 think the South African motto is 'strength in diversity', and that's what we're about."
Rewind to the Hilton Weiner rescue. The duo managed to save the company by simply working hard and smart. " It was hard," says Marcel, "every morning we had focus sessions at lam for the first year. At the moment we have 3000m2 of space on this floor; then we had 150m2 to work out of- were like shipwreck survivors clinging to a piece of driftwood." Moira admits that, especially amid the 'world of detractors', it was hard, but says, "we had something to prove. We learned the difference between being
one or two stores and being a distributed company. Communication become so, so important. How do you communicate the same vision nationally?"
Of their turnarounds it was the most dramatic, because in business terms Hilton Weiner had been what Marcel terms 'a dead dog'. In three months they turned it around, after six it became profitable, "and after that it just spewed cash, and then that funded all the other acquisitions," says Marcel. "I think as a result we became known as retail rescuers, or paramedics, so I think that's how the other deals sprang up." The Aca Joe and Jenni Button turnarounds happened about two years later. "That was a bit more difficult because we had two companies to turn around at the same time and it had to be done more by remote control." Marcel continues, "Turnarounds are all about the basics - it's about product, and service and the team, keeping your feet on the ground, not getting carried away - things that are so easy to neglect. It's about the substance more than the form."
Moira likes to quote Giorgio Armani: "Fashion only becomes fashion if people are wearing your clothes on the street. You can't do fashion in a vacuum. That's what we teach here: you've got to have that audience." She continues, "It's about trying to find the balance between exclusivity and accessibility, and how you get that right."
Moira and Marcel are clear on that you can always learn from somebody somewhere, "We aren't arrogant, and we know we can't afford to be complacent. We want to be world class South African, not only local is lekker."
"In the last three years we've focused on repositioning. Says Moira, "We've had to define each brand's personality for the market." The Platinum Group is now made up of Hilton Weiner, Aca Joe, Jenni Button, Vertigo and Urban Degree, which is the repositioned Hilton Weiner Basics (that he is said to have modeled on the Gap). Each brand has an internal personality that is defined by a story that the team conjures, and that changes every year. Without revealing details, the stories interconnect in a way that would give even the most popular soap opera a run for its money. "We need the stories to help everyone inside to understand each brand," laughs Moira.
"We've been offered a lot of opportunities to open up internationally, especially Jenni Button, and we keep saying, 'hold on, we're not ready." Marcel is clear:
"We're not scared of it but we know that we need to be really globally competitive. To take it on before that is folly.
It's what we're working towards, but we'll do it when we're ready ... there's a bus leaving every minute," he says.
Moira likes what she sees globally: "I think internationally it's all about collaboration. The best designers in the world collaborate with each other
- Karl Lagerfeld is taking on collections at H&M now," she remarks. "Our new structure is about being a community, it's no longer about being an employee working in a company. That's attractive to a lot of designers. We can provide structure and business sense, and above all 15 years of experience. We're open to collaboration." She stresses that what they've learned the hard way is that the brand is bigger than the person. It's more the greater industry that tries to find that one genius designer - for us it's a different mindset, one of generosity of spirit."
Moira loves this industry, but admits that "Sometimes I don't feel comfortable in certain environments." Marcel steps in: "But then again we create our own universe," he says, admitting to going all 'Mung Bean' on us. "At the beginning of the year," he divulges, "we decided that we wanted to be the best, not the biggest. Growth if it comes will be by default, but we're not chasing growth, we're chasing excellence." And in case we didn't get the message, Moira reiterates: "Good design is about making style accessible." Their final message to the industry is to "look in your own back yard for talent and creativity instead of constantly peering over the garden wall." For them, it's important not to get too excited about the international product. "There's a huge opportunity in South Africa," they both agree. And they would know.
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