Content area
Full Text
Lacoste chief executive José Luis Duran aims to play on the brand's sporting heritage and take a bite out of international markets.
As we sit discussing the details of the empire José Luis Duran commands, the Lacoste chief executive is inundated with well-wishers, business partners, acquaintances and family. We're in the thick of the racket of Roland Garros during the French Open and the weather isn't playing ball, meaning the Lacoste corporate area is packed with frustrated tennis fans. Duran seems at home among the hubbub; his confidence could be mistaken for Gallic flair was the man not of German-Spanish descent and his favourite player Rafael Nadal, rather than one of the Lacoste-sponsored players.
But this is the only time Duran is off-brand the entire afternoon as he sets out his plan for the future of France's most iconic sports-fashion brand. Barely six months into his tenure at the head of the croc, Duran has been busy.
"In the medium term it has to be more efficient," he says of the advantages afforded by parent company Maus Frères' acquisition of all shares to create single ownership in November last year, valuing the company at about [euro]1bn (£858m). "The difficulty of a brand like ours is to connect everything together," he continues. Up until then, Lacoste was still part-owned by descendants of the brand's founder and famous tennis player René Lacoste, which made high-level decision-making a struggle. "Today is the first time we have a unique, lean team with a unique direction," Duran adds.
Andy Rubin, chief executive of Lacoste's footwear licensee Pentland (where he predicts the brand's global retail sales will hit [euro]730m [£626.1m] in 2013, up 26% on 2012), explains that Duran "has established a new executive team in France to help co-ordinate activities across the brand and drive innovative marketing and product initiatives". Duran installed this new management team at the beginning of March with the aim of taking Lacoste into new territory, in...