Spanish fashion house Desigual – known for its colourful and complex designs – has made two important management appointments  following the departure, last May, of  CEO, Manel Jadraque, who stepped down after less than two years in the role.

Pierre Cuilleret (left in picture) and Alberto Ojinaga are joining Barcelona-based Desigual as Chief Client Officer and Chief Corporate Officer respectively. They will both work closely with Thomas Meyer – the founder of the company – who remains the Chairman and current CEO. Meyer owns 90% of Desigual, after Eurazeo, a French listed investment company, took a 10% stake in Desigual via a €285m capital increase in July 2014.

So far, the brand has been a top performer with a CAGR of +29% between 2009 to 2013 when sales hit €828m/$922m. The growth was aided by a successful multi-category, multi-geography and multi-channel focus which includes duty free and travel retail [one of 17 defined channels].

Since then, however, growth has tailed off to +16% in 2014 and flat in the first half of 2015 to €452m/$503m. A transformation strategy has therefore been initiated to ensure a renewed growth phase.

CLIENT FOCUS TO REBOOT GROWTH

Commenting on the appointment of Cuilleret and Ojinaga, the company says: “Both of them will share the common goal of driving the company towards a client-focused model.”

Cuilleret will aim to achieve this in go-to-market areas which are directly related to the client, as well as via marketing and communications, while Alberto Ojinaga will oversee the corporate functions which incorporate resourcing and operations management.

HIGH ACHIEVERS

Cuilleret, a French entrepreneur, started his career with five years of strategy and change management consulting. He founded and led The Phone House, opening hundreds of stores, up to the flotation of The Carphone Warehouse in 2000. From 2005 to 2014 he was CEO of Micromania the video games retailer, which he tripled in size and sold to US-based GameStop Group in 2008. He has been on the board of Desigual since 2014.

Ojinaga began his career at General Motors Europe and at Opel España de Automóviles. He subsequently joined publisher, Grupo Planeta, first as Finance Director and, later, as Deputy to the Managing Director for new business within the group. In 2005 he became Logistics Director at Spanish supermarket group, Caprabo, before becoming CEO in 2010 and leading a transformation of its stores whose sales reached €1,327m in 2014.

[TRBusiness visited Desigual’s expansive beach-side Barcelona headquarters mid-week and was also in Madrid to see the brand’s new Autumn/Winter 2016 collections at the start of Madrid Fashion Week. A report on this and the duty free and travel retail element of the business will appear in the next issue of TRBusiness magazine and in our upcoming fashion report.]