Who owns Fred Perry?

Publicerad 2010-04-21, 12:34 av Friends Agenda

Competition! Win fun prizes! Who owns Fred Perry?

Did you ever wonder who owns the Fred Perry sports brand? I do. Why? Because it’s being kept as a secret. Now ain’t that a good way to spark interest, don’t you think?

Let me explain:
Some ten years ago or so I found myself in Germany, stalking Puma’s wonder kid and marketing director Tony Bertone for an interview (he is worthy of a blog post of his own, so if you don’t know of him – go google). After endless pulling of strings, nagging and begging I at last found myself sitting having coffee with him and Puma CEO Jochen Zeitz at an international brand convention for Puma representatives. We were chatting about street culture, Vans plimsoles and the tedious nature of compulsory finance education for all board members, when suddenly a Japanese gentleman grabs hold of my polo shirt.

“You see that brand! I saved that brand you know!”, the man exclaims as he pushes himself down on a seat next to me, still holding on to my Fred Perry shirt.

It turns out the guy is managing the Puma distribution operations in Japan. But before that he claims he was responsible for the takeover of the then close to bankrupt Fred Perry Corporation in Great Britain. He tells a story about how Fred Perry products were flooding the retail chains creating massive discounts on what he thought should have been a more exclusive lifestyle brand.
“When we bought the company they bragged about the worth of all the shirts they had in warehouses around the UK. I just told them to burn the lot.”, says my new found friend.

Said and done. Fred Perry got rid of the backlog. They started a controlled distribution strategy that gave them better control of their products and their brand. The rest is history. It’s a great success case when it comes to the long run advantages of choosing to nursing the brand as opposed to short sighted sales.

But, the trick is it’s a secret. No one is supposed to know, as I found out when I got back to Sweden and started to call the Fred Perry PR department to verify the story. After five or six calls the head of PR got back to me with the verdict:
“We talk about the brand and our products, but we don’t comment on our owners.”

Not even the name of company?

“No. And that’s final”

End of conversation.

In a way it makes sense. Fred Perry is a brand that is closely linked to British music and casuals culture. Being Japanese doesn’t work well with being Paul Weller’s favourite choice of Polo.
But still I’m curious (heck, I’m paid to be). So if you can be the first to provide me with the name of the Japanese corporation that owns Fred Perry I’ll happily buy and send you a Fred Perry polo shirt. Japanese garments at its best.

Robert

Nyhetsarkiv