Yahoo Finance North Sails Apparel’s New CEO Victor Duran Sees Brand Unfurling Sails — and Sales
MILAN — In his first interview as North Sails Apparel’s new chief executive officer, Victor Duran outlined a clear and concise strategy aimed at accelerating the brand linked to the leading sail-making specialist.
Duran, who succeeded Marisa Selfa in the role in February, aims to double or even triple revenues in the next five to seven years. Last year, the brand totaled 72 million euros in sales, almost doubling its size compared to pre-COVID-19, as sales generated in 2019 were 42 million euros.
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“We believe this new goal is very achievable,” Duran told WWD. “We have very strong products… And Oakley Capital [the private equity firm that acquired North Sails in 2014] believe in the potential this brand has in Europe and to enter in Asia, North and Latin America, Turkey and Middle East,” he said.
To this end, Duran added that “in some cases we might not do it ourselves but partner with the best local companies to build the North Sails brand in foreign countries.”
As for the U.S. specifically, he underscored the company is “in the middle of analyzing and investigating how we can enter the market” — a move he expects to happen next year.
To be sure, Duran’s approach to expansion will be gradual. Tackling the aforementioned markets is only the third phase of his plan. The first one is to further strengthen North Sails in its core and largest territory, Italy, which last year accounted for 65 percent of total sales.
The local performance was driven by different factors, such as improved products, starting with the North Tech collection that was introduced in 2019 and accounted for between 20 and 30 percent of total sales last year.
“Our first priority is to increase the support to our customers by driving demand through better product and strong consumer marketing in Italy. The percentage of product that is elevated will change significantly from where it is today… We continue to build on the success of our North Tech collection and will be adding a new pillar, Newport Archive, which will leverage our unique heritage,” he teased, adding that the brand started to experiment with this approach in the fall 2024 collection and it will resonate more in the spring 2025 line.
“And now we really start to look at what happens at the top of the pyramid. We feel the brand can extend upwards and it’s possible that in addition to having our own line we would also seek to have some collaborations at the top,” said the executive, mentioning the tie-up released earlier this year with Slowear as a successful example.
“We have really started thinking who we feel we are as a brand. One of the things I did when I arrived is asking people what kind of brand we are. Are we a fashion brand? Are we a sports brand? Are we a premium brand? What was interesting is that nobody could really say [one]. So we’ve worked together and we’ve come up with the place we want to occupy: we want to be the most-loved performance brand for the ocean-going and ocean-inspired [people],” said Duran.
“I don’t think we can ever be more fashionable than a true fashion brand, but within this ocean-inspired space there’s nobody that can be as authentic as us. We need to play our own game as best as possible,” he added.
Marketing implementations will flank the product developments in enhancing the brand’s visibility in the country. “We’re a big brand but we don’t really behave like one, so we need to start doing proper marketing,” said Duran about the first major campaign effort the brand debuted in northern Italy this month and that will roll out “to achieve a 90 percent reach during September to November.”
To further heighten the brand awareness, North Sails will continue to work on its distribution and “fill out the high-quality brand presence in some cities where we’re not today.”
“We see some significant white space in terms of brand stores, either directly operated or through franchise partners,” said Duran, mentioning a low retail density in central Italy or in coastal towns that could fit well with the brand’s nautical heritage and its proposition.
For one, North Sails has recently doubled its presence in Genoa and opened a unit in the seaside town of Milano Marittima, in the Emilia-Romagna region. The company has identified another eight to 10 locations throughout Italy to grow its footprint within the next 24 months, which will add to a network of 650 points of distribution in the country among direct stores and wholesalers.
In Europe, North Sails’ best-performing markets are Spain and France, each accounting for between 5 and 10 percent of the brand’s total sales last year. This was due mainly to the label’s presence at El Corte Inglés and Galeries Lafayette department stores, which add 33 doors and 23 doors to North Sails’ distribution count, respectively.
Duran considers Germany as the other European market with the biggest potential and currently in development. While the company is going after multibrand stores and eyeing a handful of store openings in key cities for physical distribution, it is also seeing online platforms perform well in the country.
Overall, the digital space is one of high interest to the CEO, who prior to joining North Sails held key positions at McKinsey — specializing in fashion, sport and private equity — and developed and executed plans to enhance brand presence and operational efficiency for various companies. For example, he played pivotal roles in developing the retail and e-commerce businesses for the likes of Intersport, Salomon, Arc’teryx and Rossignol.
“The brands that have been successful over the past decade, they have been direct-to-consumer led brands,” said Duran. “It’s very difficult to have an expansion strategy that leads with wholesale in this [kind of brands]. You have to go into a country to prove that your proposition works and then the wholesale partners will want to take you, as well.
“So we really have to master our own destiny and we’re really starting to push our own [e-commerce]. That’s been a major part of our effort over the past few months,” continued Duran. “We’re looking to accelerate our marketplace and to launch or add a number of new marketplaces in Q4 of this year, all with the focus on Germany, France and the U.K.”
North Sails’ own online store generated roughly 10 percent of total sales last year, when it was “pretty consistent and relatively flat,” said the executive, pointing that it offers another opportunity.
“I think channel-wise we will shift from becoming physical to most likely becoming digitally led. I would suspect in five years that 50 percent of our business will be online. And I would be happy if it was more, because that means we’re going faster,” he concluded.
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