High Fashion: How Fashion UK Global Licensing has built its pan-European network

LicensingSource chats to the ambitious licensee’s heads of operations across its offices in Germany, France, Iberia, Nordics, CEE and Benelux.

Over the past three years, Fashion UK Global Licensing has made some major steps in its goal of becoming a true pan-European licensee.

As well as its UK office in Leicester, the apparel specialist now has operations in Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Romania and Italy… and UK md, Gurdev Mattu, tells us that the company is continually exploring new markets.

“The teams vary depending on the remit and the size of the markets – but it’s about the quality of our staff, not just the number,” he explains when discussing the size of the teams in each territory. “We have opted for the best in class in each marketplace.

“Brexit has made us even more determined to make our pan-European footprint even stronger. We want to continue to be recognised now as the leading European licensee, offer impeccable service to all of our excellent customers and licensors and to continue team confidence.”

Fellow md, Mickey Mattu, points out that a benefit of having a local presence means that the company can regularly meet all of its customers. The long-term goal, he says, is continued growth: “we want to be accessible in all markets for brand owners and retailers alike.”

Frank Sandoebes, md, Germany

“In a year with a lot of extremes, we have seen some great expansion in Europe and within the countries in Europe.

A great creative team, paired with a ‘quality first’ approach is well received with existing and new customers. We have seen top performing licences in two different areas – classics are still strong, and we have seen a massive growth in all gaming licences. This trend only got stronger during the pandemic and lockdown.

We started our European journey in 2018 with the founding of Fashion UK Germany. In 2020 an office in Poland was opened and in 2021 we just opened our permanent premises in Paris, France and in Barcelona, Spain. Next to the offices in Europe, we’ve also established local sourcing offices in China, Bangladesh and Turkey, while we still run our office in India.

Local contact and being next to our customer are key for our service approach. Understanding the market and supporting the needs of local customers is important to us. Running everything from the UK would not have the same detail as being part of the market.

Local contact, understanding the market, great creativity and quality first – this is what is driving us and we believe that with great service we can support our customers across Europe.”

Ingrid Wojcik, sales manager, Benelux

“Business has been challenging in general over the past 12 months, but there is an appetite for licences, with gaming being a top performer.

We opened the Benelux office in December 2020. Our team is extremely experienced: Isabelle Delahaye worked in Benelux for years in very well-known licensing companies as a design and sales manager and I have been in the licensing industry for more than 15 years.

It’s really important to have representation on the ground. Isabelle and myself are from Lille. We know Belgium and Netherlands very well. Each territory has its specificities. Benelux covers three territories (Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland) with three different languages. The retailer landscape has its specificity: less mid-tiers and more high range and hard discounter stores.

When permitted, it’s also important to be able to meet our customers and our licensors. Even if the meetings are on Zoom or Teams, they are really helpful and efficient – but people are missing meeting up in person.”

Eric Scemama, sales manager, France

“We officially opened in January 2021, with a dedicated sales team of four people with more than 30 years experience in the industry. Our customers are already up and running, with more coming on board each week.

Fashion UK Global Licensing’s strategy is to develop each country on the long-term run. The success of a country is to balance the company’s DNA (designs, licence strategy, service) with a dedicated team delivering a personal service to each customer. Communication and customisation are key – we need to have a daily basis contact with local office to provide the best service to our customers. Each country has a different focus, strategy and DNA.

In general, the European market trend is moving in the same direction, but each customer has their own agenda in terms of timings, needs and speed.
By the end of 2021, we would like to be a strategic and dedicated partner to the top three to four main customers in France, Germany, Eastern Europe and Spain.

We would like to build dedicated teams for each of the customers in terms of design, communication, production and services.”

Ziv Shraiber, sales manager, CEE

“We have two offices – one in Poland and one in Hungary – with a total team of five people, taking care of ten different countries in the region including Russia.

We have also built a special stock programme (DOD) to be able to support the smaller retailers that have problems to meet production MOQ, and as well to support online retailers.

The reason it is important to have local offices is because in each country there is not only language differences, but also mentality differences and in order to develop the business relations it is better with local people. As well from the practice side, all the technical aspects are in the local language, which make things easier if you are local.

Some licences are strong in all countries and some are very local. The licensing business is dynamic and trends change all the time – right now, gaming licences are the strongest category.”

Ewa Sawicka, sales manager, Nordics

“The business has been very strong for us despite the pandemic and we continue with our expansion in the Nordics.

The region comprises of four retail markets – Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark – each with their very unique needs. Some retailers seem to be more adventurous than others, and are having great success in trying a new licence or bringing to life smaller or currently less popular properties.

However, we can actually see a lot of similarities across the region in regards to licence demand. Having said that, licences like Disney, Warner Bros. and Universal are always successful to us. Not to mention about key gaming licences, like Minecraft, Xbox, Nintendo, Fortnite just to name a few. It is fascinating to be able to offer specifically tailored designs to meet customer expectations and show the market difference.

Our long-term strategy remains the same – we want to grow within our existing customers and continue to be their preferred licence partner. It is extremely important to us to have this dialogue with our retailers and to bring them valuable ideas and creative. This automatically leads to so many new opportunities. We are also talking to new customers and trying to expand our retail portfolio in Nordics.”

Madalena Mexia, sales manager, Iberia

“We are growing across Iberia and working with best in class retailers. Evergreen licences do very well for us – gaming continues to be strong, while we are also seeing growth in anime licences.

Our team in Spain consists of three designers, two account managers, two agents and three merchandisers. Local representation is so important to build our relationships and keep the customers interested and motivated. By the end of 2021 we want to be the number one licensee!”