Iconic fashion brand, Tretorn, is undergoing its biggest change in 130 years with rapid growth, digital transformation, and its own stores.
In 1891, Tretorn made its first pair of galoshes in its newly opened factory in Helsingborg. In the following five years, the company produced one million galoshes and cemented its success for generations to come.
Fast-forward 130 years to 2020 and, despite the company facing its biggest ever challenge in the form of the fallout from COVID-19, Tretorn is pressing firmly down on the accelerator as its growth journey picks up pace and momentum.
“This company has been through two world wars and both the 1990s crisis and the financial crisis in 2008,” says Magnus Månsson, CEO at Tretorn. “Even though I wasn’t involved in those, I have to say I think this year has been the hardest . The most difficult thing is we don’t know how long this situation will last or how we will be affected in the long term."
“The most difficult thing this year has been to continue to push through the changes we’re making. It’s easy to stop as soon as there is a problem. At the same time, all the staff understand this is what we should do now. We’re adjusting as we go and we know the changes we’re making will help us achieve great things.”
Tretorn’s goal is to reach a distribution model by 2024, where its own e-commerce accounts for 25 percent of sales, wholesalers account for 50 percent, marketplaces 15 percent and its own physical stores 10 percent. Today, sales from wholesale account for 95 percent of sales so it’s a significant shift in culture and operations.
The first significant change happened in early 2019 with the creation of a dedicated e-commerce team to drive and accelerate online sales. The next big leap forward for Tretorn was last week with the opening of its first physical store in ten years.
Magnus Månsson adds: “Historically, Tretorn has exclusively engaged in wholesale operations; we sell our products to retailers who, in turn, sell directly to the consumer. Once upon a time, there were stores in places like New York and Boston, but for, maybe ten years, we have not had our own retail. What we had then was more akin to showrooms. Now, it’s all about finding the right locations and the right flows so that the channels complement each other. The important thing is that we can show our entire range.”
Tretorn’s new store is in Väla, Helsingborg (close to the company’s headquarters and warehouses) and opened at the end of August with further flagship stores planned for Stockholm, Gothenburg, Berlin, and London.
The stores will be powered by the Sitoo POS and unified commerce platform, a choice which, Magnus Månsson, says makes perfect sense.
“We needed to be up and running quickly and the speed of implementation at Sitoo is unmatched. We also have pop-up stores on our radar so we needed a solution with flexibility to power these and we’ll be expanding globally so we wanted to find a solution to support this. With Sitoo, we have one platform we can use for everything that will be continuously updated.
The people at Sitoo, their friendliness and willingness to help, as well as their knowledge and experience, were all part of the reasons for us choosing to work with them.
“The change we’re going through is great fun and we’re delighted Sitoo is part of it. Everyone thinks it is fun because we’re constantly forced to develop the business and we’re excited for what the future holds.”
