Mexx is an international fashion company that designs clothes and accessories for men, women, and children.
History
In the 1970s, fashion designerRattan Chadha and his business partners PK Sen Sharma, Adu Advaney, Suveer Arora, Ronny Lemmens, Horatio Ho and Arun Mehta supplied clothes for department and wholesale stores in the Netherlands, which were specifically designed and labelled for the stores. Revamping the business in 1980, they created two popular clothing brands—"Moustache" for men and "Emanuelle" for women. Both labels had coordinated collections focused on lifestyle and youth fashion. In 1986, the two brand names were merged to form: M + E + XX to create MEXX. Over time, Mexx has grown to become an international brand with over 800 stores in 55 countries and more than 10,000 points of sale. It has grown rapidly and is now an internationally prominent company, employing over 6,000 people worldwide. In 2001, Mexx was bought by the U.S. fashion company Liz Claiborne for $264 million and an Earn out which amounted to another $275 Million. Thus, for many years it belonged to the Liz Claiborne group—a multi-brand business listed on the New York stock exchange that markets fashion, design, accessories and perfume internationally. In 2011, Liz Claiborne, as part of a restructuring, sold Mexx to private equity firmThe Gores Group at a loss but retained a minority interest in the Mexx chain of stores.
Bankruptcy
In 2012, Mexx already reported a loss of 86 million euros and later, in 2013, a loss of 82 million euros. On December 4, 2014, three holding companies of Mexx were declared bankrupt by the district court of Amsterdam. On December 5, 2014, Frits Kemp, a high-profile lawyer in the Netherlands declared 315 Mexx stores, which serves worldwide including 95 locations in Canada, bankrupt. The stores were expected to remain open while the chain sold off merchandise.
Eroglu Holding (2015-2017)
On January 29, 2015, Turkish Eroglu Holding acquired fashion brand Mexx for 21 million euro and planned to relaunch several dozen stores all across Europe. Since February 2015 Mexx re-opened full price stores and outlet centers across Europe.
Current owners and organization
In August 2017, the label Mexx was acquired by Ferry Helmer and Ronald Petrus Janssen. A new management team composed of former Mexx executives, including CEO Leo Cantagalli, brand director Nur Basaran, and CFO Jacques Mitterand was put in place. These senior executives helped bring Mexx to what some call "the glory days" of Mexx. The Mexx website was put online in the first week of March 2018 as part of the re-launch period, including an initial spring/summer 2018 collection.
Product palette
Mexx did not just offer contemporary fashion but also diverse lifestyle products. Besides Mexx fashion for men, women and children, Mexx products ranged from shoes to accessories, such as bags and scarves, to fragrances, carpets and bed linen. The license for Mexx Eyewear is held by German distributor OWP and is not affected by the bankruptcy.
International business
The company's collections and accessories were sold in over 300 own retail stores, famous department stores, chain stores, specialist stores and nearly 300 franchise stores. The number of Mexx stores at its peak in 2015:
