With customers who are well educated, well trained, and with a very definite interest in fashion, Mango is a brand for the urban woman. Present in 105 countries – including the Americas, from North to South; Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and South Africa – the company is now focused upon its expansion into the African and Pakistan markets, as well as a series of new openings in Bermuda, Monaco and a quite stunning new flagship store on New York’s 34th Street.
“We open more than a store a day and hope to end the year with 450 new openings this year,” explains Mango’s Vice President of Business Development, Jose Gomez. “But that all depends on construction as we get nearer to the end of the year. We have big expansion plans and so far we are doing very well with it.”
Spain is the brand’s main market. With around 300 stores opened it contributes some 21 per cent of the company’s total billing. After Spain, other important key markets include France, Germany and Turkey.
“We consider Europe as our domestic market,” says Gomez, “followed by Asia and then the Americas. We also place a huge emphasis on emerging markets.”
Mango has flagship stores in every fashion capital around the world, such as those in Paris, Tokyo, New York, Milan, Barcelona and London.
“We have flagships in Oxford Street and Regent Street in London and the latter is one of my favourite
stores in the chain, it’s beautiful,” smiles Gomez.
The flagship stores tend to be bigger, with London totaling almost 20,000sq ft over several floors and Paris standing at over 10,000sq ft. Normal stores tend to be in the region of 7,000-10,000sq ft.
“We adapt to the city and the local area that we are trading, allowing us to attract customers in places where we may not be able to find a store that is 10,000sq ft,” explains Gomez. “Or if we can, the neighbourhood might not be able to support it. For example, in SoHo, the stores are very boutique-like and tend to be smaller formats. When we go to an area we try to adjust to that area; we use the mature elements of a mango store and adjust to the flavour of the area.”
In SoHo, New York, which has become a very commercial area, Mango has opened an 8,000sq ft store in the old Singer building, and has utilised a lot of the existing decoration, respecting the building’s historical standing.
Gomez sees the company’s growth throughout 2012 as coming via expansion on two fronts: increasing sales in current stores – a challenge for every retailer – and expansion into new markets and the opening of new stores.
“We are hoping to open at least one store a day in 2012,” adds Gomez. “We believe that there is a lot of potential for us in France, Germany, the UK and in Europe as a whole, and that we can continue to increase our footprint of stores without replicating ourselves.”
For the full article, please see the December 2011/January 2012 issue.
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