Escada publishes Annual Report and makes first statement about the Escada-Campaign

17.03.2008

On February 29th the Escada Group published their annual report for the financial year 2006/2007. This provides a clear/detailed insight into the company structure, the economic developments and how the company management assess/view the Escada-Campaign. Reason enough to look more closely at some of the facts in the report.

The company´s economic data are consistantly negative. Contrary to the strong growth trends in the luxury goods branch, their turnover fell slightly to just under 700 million Euros, and whilst Escada still made a profit in the previous year, they suffered losses of 27 million € in the year just gone. Despite the abominable developments, the saleries of the company directors´ were upped by 30% to almost 4 million € together.

The share price also fell by 36%, though in the meantime (at the beginning of March) the prices have risen slightly again due to rumours of a buy-up. On the call date of 31.10.2007 the most important shareholders were Aksenenko/Finartis (Switzerland) with 26.7%, the finance company Bestinver (Madrid) with 11%, Fidelity (Boston, London) with 10.3% and Schroeder (London) with 8.7%, as well as the concern´s founder Wolfgang Ley with 9.9%.

Escada´s management want to confront these developments with the "ESCADA Excellence Programm". The programm aims to appeal more strongly to regular customers on the one hand whilst addressing new younger customers on the other with a casual line (ESCADA Sport). Parallel to this, existing shops are to be renovated and those lacking in attraction are to be closed completely if they do not meet the expected turnover. Only last year there were 46 new openings compared to 64 closures. The sales of accessories should clearly rise. New posts were also created and filled with managers and designers dearly bought from the competition. This brings the following people into the executive suites: Perry Oosting (Senior Vice President Global Commercial Operations), Patrizia Pressimone (Retail Design Director), Mario Butazzi (Director of Leatherware and Accessories, Elena Ghisellini (Head Designer Handbags) und Julia Hofmann (Head Designer ESCADA Sport).

The number of employees increased in the comparative period to around 4,200, which is mainly due to the opening of a new production plant in Radgona (Slovenia). The companies ELOS-ESCADA and EPAS will take over a large part of the production; the daughter company, ESCADA Maglia Italia (EMI) based in Reggiolo is of central importance here.

The relationship to the Primera Group, with the subsidiaries apriori, BiBA, cavita and Laurèl is ambivalent. This part of the Escada group could increase their turnover by 10% to just under 250 million, largely because of the expansion of BiBA sales areas; however the management of the Primera group sees "only a financial investment which has no strategic meaning to the brand ESCADA." In analyst circles rumours are already spreading of the sale of Primera in the second mid-year. A sale would bring millions into the empty coffers, which could then be used to balance the high investment costs linked to the ESCADA Excellence Programm.

The most interesting part for animal liberation activists is bound to be the "Chances and Risks Report". Alongside the various general risks such as international crises, "anti-fur" protestors are also mentioned. A "sector-specific risk", according to the company management, "are the attempts by anti-fur activists to disrupt operational processes". This is the first time since the Escada-Campaign began in October 2007 that the concern has made any statement to the continual and powerful protests. And this in a report intended for a broad public of economic press, potential shareholders and investors, and which can be downloaded from  http://www.investor-relations.escada.com. Further proof of how seriously the global animal rights and animal liberation movements are taken.

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Bayard Wartmann goes fur free!

14.03.2008

Bayard Wartmann is the largest BiBA partner in Switzerland. They run all BiBA shops and several other BiBA sales areas.

Therefore there have been demonstrations in front of Bayard Wartmann shops in the context of the global campaign against ESCADA during the last months.

In a letter to the ESCADA campaign Switzerland the company now confirmed its entire and unlimited pullout from the fur trade. With immediate effect all Bayard Wartmann shops will be fur free. Merely the remainder of stock from winter season 2007 is sold in a single outlet store. Naturally this abandonment of fur includes all kinds of fur, also rabbit fur.

This is a huge success in the fight against the fur industry and for the ESCADA camnpaign! It affects 35 shops in Switzerland, of which 17 are BiBA shops or sales areas and one apriori shop.

Due to this pleasant news the Bayard Wartmann company will no longer be a target of the actions planned for the 5th of april (BiBA action day) and for the future. However, the few remaining companies in Switzerland which sell BiBA-products will be focused on. More information on this will follow shortly.