It’s a cramming impact: Peek & Cloppenburg will soon no longer be selling children’s clothing at many of its locations. Competition is too fierce, according to the company.

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At the end of March, the long-established company Peek & Cloppenburg KG, Düsseldorf, announced that the sale of children’s clothing will be discontinued in numerous stores. Starting next year, the group intends to begin dismantling the stores and dissolve the areas for children’s collections at many locations. This will affect some brands. After all, the company also sells children’s clothing from labels such as Adidas, Levis Kids and Puma. For Peek & Cloppenburg’s own brands Review for Kids and Review for Teens, this strategic assortment decision means the end. IB Company KG will discontinue the development of these two labels after the 2019 fall/winter season. In doing so, it is also giving up its third-party customer business. Review products will no longer be available outside Peek & Cloppenburg stores. P&C is currently examining whether children’s collections from other brands should still be offered at least in individual cosmopolitan stores. Of the more than 60 locations, however, this would only be a few.

Peek & Cloppenburg declares rescue measures a failure

This step may be surprising, as Peek & Cloppenburg sees itself as a fashion supplier for the whole family. But the environment was too tough, according to the company. The reasons for the decision were the high intensity of competition as well as the lower earnings in children’s clothing in recent years. In the past, numerous measures have been tested, solutions sought and concepts developed in order to be able to continue offering children’s clothing with a focus on the own brands Review for Kids and Review for Teens in a difficult market environment. Unfortunately, none of these measures led to a significant improvement in earnings. The Group intends to develop tailor-made, location-dependent concepts for the areas that become vacant.

The market for children’s clothing is highly competitive

Numerous analyses recently confirmed that the market for children’s clothing is highly competitive. Despite rising birth rates, the market for children’s clothing is developing only slowly. According to IFH Cologne and BBE Handelsberatung’s children’s clothing sector focus, turnover in 2017 was around 3.6 billion euros. This is a meagre increase of 0.5 percent compared to the previous year. According to the experts, strong competition and online trading are putting pressure on the margins of suppliers. Peter Frank, Senior Consultant at BBE Handelsberatung: “Children’s clothing remains a demanding market. Price plays a major role here and makes life difficult for the specialist trade, because the Internet brings reasonably priced goods to every village. Only a clear, location- and target group-oriented positioning can help.” Peek & Cloppenburg now seems to have made this strategic decision.

 

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Link: Peek & Cloppenburg withdraws from children’s clothing sales

Image: Peek & Cloppenburg, Düsseldorf

//KH