Esprit rearranges its team: new head for Southern Europe

Esprit rearranges its helm in Europe. The German company, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, has placed Jesús Gil at the head of Southern Europe. The executive, who led the Spanish market since 2015, will replace Nicolás Dehelly in the position, as sources of the company have confirmed to Mds.

Esprit signed Gil in 2015, after two years without a manager in Spain. The executive joined the group coming from DB Apparel, where he held the position of commercial and marketing director in Spain and Portugal. With a degree in Economics from the Carlos III University of Madrid, Gil began his career in the fashion business at L'Oréal, where he worked for five years.

In his new position, Gil will continue to work from Madrid, where the Spanish subsidiary is headquartered, and will oversee the work of managers in Italy and France. In 2018, Esprit’s revenue was one billion Hong Kong dollars (134.8 million euros) in France, Spain and Italy, 16% less than the previous year.

Esprit has appointed Jesús Gil, former DB Apparel as new head of southern Europe

France is the largest of the three markets, with sales of 736 million Hong Kong dollars last year, but also where it reduced its business the most, by 19%. Due to the decline, Switzerland overcame the French market as the second largest territory for the company last year, behind Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg).

 On the other hand, Spain resisted better, with a drop of only 9%, to 208 million Hong Kong dollars (26.5 million euros). In Italy, sales were reduced by 12%, to 114 million Hong Kong dollars (14.5 million euros).

The company operates with ten of its directly-operated stores in the French market, one less than the previous year, while both in Italy and in Spain the company makes its distribution through third parties, both franchised and multi-brand stores and corners in department stores, in addition to the online channel.

Esprit is led by Anders Kristiansen since 2018

On a global scale, Esprit has been led by Anders Kristiansen since 2018, who relieved José Manuel Martínez Gutiérrez, now CEO of the Spanish Bimba and Lola, in the position. After its incorporation, Kristiansen has launched a new strategic plan that goes back to betting on basics, gaining speed and making “aggressive investments” to grow in China, one of its target markets.

The third pillar of the group is digitalization, for which the group wants to strengthen its agreements with online players like Asos, Zalora and Tmall and accelerate its communication strategy through the online.

The company ended last year with losses for 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars (248.3 million euros) compared to the negative net result of 2.5 million Hong Kong dollars (295.8 million euros) in 2018. The company shrunk its revenue by 16.3%, up to 12.9 billion Hong Kong dollars (1.5 billion euros). At constant exchange rates, the fall was smaller, of 12.9%.