OLYMP Bezner KG from Bietigheim-Bissingen (in the Ludwigsburg district, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) has succeeded in slightly increasing its sales in the 2023 financial year, despite an ongoing slump in consumer spending. As at 31 December 2023, revenue generated by shirts, jumpers, accessories and the like amounted to 229 million euros. In 2022, it was still 227 million euros. Its employee numbers have also remained stable – OLYMP’s workforce currently comprises 880 people across the D-A-CH region.

 

The clothing industry continued to face enormous challenges in 2023. Increasing global crises, wars and dwindling purchasing power inhibited consumer confidence. The fashion market was also charac-terised by insolvencies, shop closures and cost increases. Mark Bezner (60), owner and CEO of OLYMP Bezner KG, is nevertheless full of confidence for 2024: “We’re making tentative, but deter-mined progress towards our stated goal of matching our pre-pandemic figures. In the face of extreme-ly adverse circumstances, we’ve performed reasonably well compared to the rest of the industry and recorded a slight increase in sales. We have also experienced increasing demand for high-quality business fashion. This is particularly true of the classic shirt, which is providing new impetus through constant innovation. But we’re also continuing to develop, step by step, in the casual segment”. 

 

With its OLYMP 24/Seven business shirts, which are as comfortable to wear as T-shirts, the product specialist is responding to the zeitgeist of new ways of working and changing wearing habits. OLYMP’s new Casual Concept focuses on a smart collection statement and a contemporary fit for casual shirts, jumpers, polo shirts, sweatshirts and T-shirts. Over 80 per cent of all OLYMP items already bear the “Green Choice” sustainability label, which is based on independent standards and confirms the use of more sustainable raw materials and more environmentally friendly production methods in an authorita-tive fashion. By 2025, 100 per cent of OLYMP’s products will be labelled in this way. Mark Bezner adds: “2024 will be another brutal year, full of challenges for the fashion industry. We can also expect a further market shakeout on both the manufacturing and retail side. For this reason, we’ll need to con-tinue rolling up our sleeves so that we can fully utilise our market potential and achieve the growth targets we’re aiming for. Nevertheless, we do want to achieve at least a mid-single-digit increase in sales this year!”

 

To make that happen, OLYMP intends intensifying its collaboration with existing national and interna-tional retail partners and acquire new target customers. At the same time, its product development, communications initiatives and advertising campaigns are to be tailored even more precisely to the needs of the various target groups. As part of an omnichannel strategy, the company also plans to further strengthen its own retail operations both online and in-store. The largest OLYMP brand store to date opened in November 2023 in the Westfield Centro shopping centre in Oberhausen (North Rhine-Westphalia) and features 150 square metres of retail space. The company currently operates a total of 56 OLYMP stores in Germany and Austria. The clothing manufacturer is also focusing on com-pany-wide digitalisation, particularly in product development and at its showrooms, as well as refining its ambitious sustainability strategy.

 

MAERZ Muenchen KG, in Munich’s Perlach district – which belongs to the OLYMP Bezner Group and has 105 employees in Germany and approx. 230 people at its own knitwear factory in Hungary – was also able to increase its turnover in 2022. At 27.8 million euros in 2023, its revenue was almost seven per cent higher than in the previous year. This brings the cumulative combined turnover of the OLYMP Bezner Group to 256.8 million euros in 2023.