Esprit Holdings
Esprit
Type
Public
Founded
1968 in San Francisco, USA
Headquarters Global Business
Headquarters: Ratingen,
Germany
Global Finance Headquarters:
Hong Kong
Key people
Heinz Jürgen Krogner-
Kornalik, Chairman and Group
CEO
Products
Apparel, Watches, Bedroom
Furnishing
Employees
15000 worldwide industry =
Retail
Website
www.esprit.com
An Esprit store in the Scarborough Town
Centre
Esprit Holdings Limited
(traditional
Chinese: ?????????? SEHK: 330) is a publicly-
owned manufacturer of apparel, footwear, ac-
cessories, jewellery and housewares under
the
ESPRIT
label.
The
company
is
headquartered and managed from Kowloon,
Hong Kong, and Ratingen, Germany. In the
2007–2008 business year, Esprit Holdings
Limited generated
a worldwide group
turnover of around EUR 3.25 billion (as of
30.06.2008). The Group operates more than
770 directly managed retail stores worldwide
and distributes its products via more than
15,150 wholesale locations around the globe.
The company has more than 1.1 million
square meters of retail space in more than 40
countries.
The ESPRIT brand name is also licensed
to other manufacturers.
In addition, the
group owns the Red Earth cosmetics brand.
Red Earth was popular in the 1980s, espe-
cially with suburban teenagers. It remains
well-known with people of the middle-class
income,
especially
in
its
largest mar-
ket—Germany.
The Esprit lifestyle concept is fully presen-
ted in its flagship stores, which feature both
current Esprit
fashion lines and license
products under one roof. Esprit has its own
architecture department that is responsible
for the worldwide design of its stores.
History
While hitchhiking
in California
in
the
mid-60s, Susie Russel was here on the road
with her convertible. She picked up a hitch-
hiker from the roadside: Douglas Tompkins.
Russel and Tompkins later became a couple
and got married.
No wonder that Susie Tompkins—as a
Californian flower child—had a weakness for
unusual styles. She was particularly taken
with the style of the Europeans. And it was
precisely t