Between department stores and single-brand stores, the retail development marks a change of pace in the development of the Drumohr brand, founded in 1770 and today part of the Brescia-based Ciocca group, active in the production of hosiery for 110 years. «We have opened a boutique dedicated to the men’s collection in the center of Rome, in via di Campo Marzio. In the coming months, however, we will expand the Turin store in via Lagrange to make room for the women’s collection and we are planning another important opening: in Milan, in via della Spiga», explains the managing director Michele Ciocca.
The development of the women’s line
The strengthening of the network of single-brand stores, in addition to the corners in Rinascente in Milan, Rome, Piazza Fiume and Florence and 420 multi-brand stores in Italy and abroad, is an important step in the brand’s growth, thanks to the expansion of the women’s collection which today it absorbs about 20% of the turnover and which Ciocca aims to bring to 50%: «We wanted to dress the wives of Drumohr customers while maintaining the key elements of the brand, such as bright colors or jacquard motifs, and reinterpreting them in a feminine and contemporary key and is giving new impetus to the women’s line. So we need to find ad hoc commercial spaces that tell the new chapter of this book».
The double soul of the brand
The book Ciocca talks about begins in 2006 when his father, passionate about the Drumohr brand, took over the brand and part of the archive one year after the company’s bankruptcy. And he then entrusted him with this bridge project between Italy and the United Kingdom, whose lowest common denominator is excellence: «The substance is all Italian, given that the garments are produced in our company but the heritage remains strong in creativity. We try to combine two worlds: we have replicated and maintained typical Scottish processes and most of the raw materials still come from the United Kingdom, but Italian innovation, both in terms of design and technology, plays a very important role», explains the administrator delegate.
This double soul represents an international driving force for the brand, which closed 2021 at 10.5 million euros and expects to end 2022 with a turnover of between 12 and 13 million euros: «We make 50% of the revenues beyond the border. The main foreign market is Japan, which accounts for about 25%, followed by South Korea, the United States and Northern Europe. Also on the retail front I would like to look beyond the border, starting with Europe – explains Ciocca – even if we will stop for a while after the Italian openings we have worked on in recent years”. Drumohr is already present in some of the best-known department stores, such as Isetan in Tokyo and Le Bon Marché in Paris.
The digital channel
Alongside physical retail there are also digital channels which are experiencing growth: «We have entered some platforms such as Farfetch thanks to our physical customers and they are doing very well. Then we have the ecommerce platform, which we brought back in-house during the pandemic, and today it represents the third largest store in terms of turnover». Among the novelties of the brand also the launch of the children’s line, produced and distributed from the Italian company La stupenderia.
For Drumohr three openings in Italy and accelerates on the women’s collection