Tuesday, March 9th, 2021
Interview with the Giesswein boss
"We can hardly meet the demand"
While the fashion industry is suffering, the traditional Tyrolean company Giesswein doubled its sales in 2020. In the podcast "The Zero Hour", managing director Markus Giesswein tells how the company, which specializes in wool products, manages to successfully get through the crisis.
The apparel industry is suffering from a pandemic and ongoing lockdown. The Tyrolean manufacturer Giesswein, on the other hand, is benefiting from the trend towards the new homeliness. "We are now in February at twice the level as before the pandemic. This is a huge demand that we can barely meet," says Managing Director Markus Giesswein in the podcast "Zero Hour". Together with his brother, he is the third generation to run the family business founded in 1954.
The company, which used to specialize in traditional costumes, has made the transition from a small traditional company to an internationally successful brand. Even in times of crisis, Giessweinn has grown – contrary to the trend. On the one hand, this is due to the popular wool slippers, which are increasingly in demand in the lockdown. But Giesswein also says: "We prepared ourselves properly, over three years ago."
In 2017, the company launched a sneaker made from merino wool. Since the trade did not want to sell the shoe, Giesswein decided to sell it directly. Hollywood stars like Harrison Ford wear the shoe. What arose out of necessity became a stroke of luck for the company in times of pandemic. Business was "actually not affected at all" by the lockdown, says Giesswein. Sales have quadrupled since 2017, to currently around 60 million euros. In the adult segment, they are almost completely sold out, says Giesswein.
Hear in the new episode of "The Zero Hour"
- How the company benefits from the changed advertising behavior of the Internet giants
- How the collaboration between Markus Giesswein and his brother works – and what the parents say about their sons' ideas
- Which product they want to bring to market next
You can find all episodes directly at Audio Now, Apple or Spotify or via Google.
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