Posted Sep 28, 2022, 4:33 PM
PP Yarns & Co, a company created to take over Phildar, is posting its first profits only two years later and is on its way to completing its transformation. It has just announced that its net result amounted to 150,000 euros for the first full financial year, ending at the end of January, with a turnover of 22 million euros (excluding taxes) while it was in deficit of 4 million in 2019, before its liquidation. It was then owned by the Mulliez Family Association (AFM).
Eric Vandendriessche, CEO of PP Yarns & CO, refocused the entire business on knitting yarn, dropping ready-to-wear. The Phildar (classic) and Penguin (more trendy) brands have been modernized and an own haberdashery brand has been created (PPY). The first alone weighs 90% of turnover. The workforce of 85 people at the takeover has already increased to 101 today.
First virtual knitting and crochet school
In addition to the implementation of new logistics, the investment of 5 million euros for this transformation has enabled a real digital revolution. The Roubaix company has become “omnichannel” with a new website – the new version of which has just been released, designed for mobiles – and a network of a thousand points of sale. In addition to its seven own stores and seven affiliated, the two brands are sold by 500 independents (haberdashery, etc.) and via 500 corners in specialized mass distribution. The activity now increases to 45% via the Web, 40% trading and 15% through own or affiliated stores.
PP Yarns relaunched knitting with new products, and developed crochet. The company will continue with new fancy yarns and in particular macrame next summer. In 2021, it also launched its WoolSchool, the first virtual knitting and crochet school. Finally, last April, PP Yarns opened a test store in Toulouse under the HappyWool brand, a multi-brand concept with Pingouin, Phildar and Anny Blatt, a high-end brand with which PP Yarns has entered into a partnership. A workshop where lessons take place sits in the center of the shop, the walls of which are covered with balls of colored wool.
” A break “
“We have made a 40% increase since it opened and the clientele there has been rejuvenated,” emphasizes Eric Vandendriessche. She is 35 years old on average in this store compared to 48 for the 900,000 customers of PP Yarns & Co. Once the concept has been validated, the idea is to move its network to this brand and then to open HappyWool in 2023 in all major French cities.
“Today people want to do things themselves, give gifts made by themselves, dress themselves. We are witnessing a break between “fast fashion”, this quick, disposable fashion, and “slow fashion”, this new trend where you take time to make yourself a nice sweater that you keep for a long time and that we can transmit”, analyzes the CEO of PP Yarns.
The company is pursuing the idea of collaborations with competing brands, as it did with Anny Blatt, with the aim of opening a “market place”. Despite inflation, it decided to maintain the prices of 87% of its offer, cutting back on its margins.
