Diekmann is known for his unorthodox management methods.
(Photo: Simon Thon. )
Dusseldorf Digital expert Marcus Diekmann will step down from the post of co-managing director of P&C’s private label subsidiary, International Brands Company KG. In the future, Konstantin Kirchfeld will manage the division alone. This was announced by Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf on Thursday afternoon.
The attempt by the Düsseldorf textile retailer to reorganize the private label business failed shortly after it started. The owner, Patrick Cloppenburg, personally brought Diekmann into the company for this task and made him co-managing director of the P&C subsidiary IB Company, which is responsible for managing the private labels.
Diekmann should market the high-revenue but largely unknown private brands of the family business such as Review, Jakes and McNeal more externally, for example via the online shop or social networks. “I could imagine bundling the business under a new brand,” Diekmann told the Handelsblatt at the time.
But shortly after Diekmann’s start on January 10, resistance to the owner’s decision arose. According to company circles, the marketing department of P&C was not willing to hand over competencies to the subsidiary.
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Diekmann’s attitude also met with resistance in other areas of the company. Diekmann is known for his unorthodox management methods. For example, the manager should do the job part-time because he has numerous other jobs outside of the company.
The fashion retailer’s sales were already declining before the pandemic.
(Photo: Peek & Cloppenburg)
Diekmann is on the advisory board of the dealer Rose Bikes, which makes a large part of its sales online. He is also involved in start-ups, for example in the software company Votebase together with national soccer goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. He also advises companies on digital transformation. Among other things, he recently started the job platform for refugees from Ukraine “Job Aid Ukraine”.
Ambitious plans of company boss Edgar Hert
Diekmann had also said before he started: “We want to build real consumer brands, and for that we need our own culture in the team.” He is not seen as someone who accepts the rigid hierarchies that are still common at P&C in many areas . In his previous jobs, he practiced an open management culture with a lot of personal responsibility on the part of the employees.
Particularly sensitive: P&C managing director Edgar Hert was apparently not ready to accept Diekmann’s new role in the company without further ado, according to company circles. Hert is considered a very close confidant of Patrick Cloppenburg. Cloppenburg had brought Hert to P&C four years ago from the car manufacturer Daimler and promoted him to a very influential role against internal resistance.
In addition to strategic purchasing, Hert is also responsible for the online business at P&C. But this is exactly where Diekmann sees his main competence as a digital expert.
>> Read here: Sales in the textile trade increased significantly in 2021
The company’s official statement states that since Diekmann’s start in January, the situation has been analyzed and a decision has now been made “to continue promoting the exclusive brands from within the company under the umbrella brand Peek & Cloppenburg and to draw on the existing resources of the group of companies in the areas of sales, marketing and digital”. Marcus Diekmann will support the company with the Review and Jakes brands until at least the end of September.
In a postscript, the company gives reasons: “The Peek & Cloppenburg group of companies uses all potential synergies and available resources in order to be able to push forward all future-oriented initiatives despite the severe drop in sales and the difficult economic situation resulting from the corona pandemic.”
The plans of company boss Hert are ambitious: by 2026 he wants to make the company the “leading omnichannel multi-brand retailer”. In 2020, the company, which is headquartered in Düsseldorf and Vienna, generated just over one billion euros, 28 percent less than before the pandemic. The profit margin before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was minus 4.8 percent, the loss was almost 50 million euros.
Like company boss Hert, the new head of HR used to be at Daimler
The Viennese company also turned over around 30 percent less in 2020 with 560 million euros. Germany, Switzerland and Western Europe belong to the Düsseldorf company, Austria and Eastern Europe to the Vienna company. The men’s clothing chain Anson’s also belongs to the group of companies. The group operates online shops under the names Fashion ID and “peek-cloppenburg.de” and online retail in the luxury segment with Stylebop. Overall, online trading currently accounts for around 15 percent of sales. P&C employs around 15,000 people.
The entire fashion trade is still affected by the effects of the pandemic. At Peek & Cloppenburg, however, sales had already fallen by 1.5 percent before the pandemic in 2019. For 2021, the company, which has not yet published any figures for the past year, expects a similar decline as in 2020 compared to 2019.
>> Read here: Second-hand platform Vestiaire Collective takes over US rival Tradesy
Sustainability is high on the agenda in the fashion industry, but little has happened so far. P&C also wants to continue to get involved, but has not yet communicated any goals.
Most recently, the company hired Carolin Schwarz as Head of Human Resources and Communications at P&C. The 46-year-old joined P&C in early April. Like company boss Hert, Schwarz was previously responsible for transformation and sustainability issues at the car manufacturer Daimler, most recently as Director of Integrity Management. She then worked as a management consultant and lecturer on sustainability issues at the ESB Business School in Reutlingen.
More: Peek & Cloppenburg closes the 2020 pandemic year with a loss of around 50 million euros