ESCADA AG (Escada) is Germany's leading luxury fashion brand and a leading player in the global luxury clothing market. Based in Aschheim, Germany, Escada has scaled down its range of brands into the mid-2000s to focus especially on its core, high-end Escada Collection, including the Escada haute couture line.
About Escada
The Escada brand also includes a line of sportswear under the Escada Sport label, and a range of Escada Accessories, manufactured by the company itself. In addition, Escada licenses its brand for a number of items, including eyewear, perfumes, ties and scarves, as well as a beauty care collection produced by Wella, and a line of jewelry. As part of its repositioning, Escada has sold or spun off most of its former brands, including BiBa, cavita, and its mid-range Laurel brand, which were placed under a new vehicle, Primera Group. In addition to designing and producing clothing, Escada operates a 400-store international retail network, with stores in most of the world's main fashion markets. The Escada line remains the group's strongest, at 66 percent of sales. Most of Escada's fashions, especially its high-end and haute couture designs, are produced in its factories in Germany. The company also sources some 25 percent of its production from Italy, and from a company-owned facility in Portugal. Germany accounts for 27 percent of the company's sales, which topped EUR 625 million in the company's 2003-04 fiscal year. The rest of Europe accounts for more than 28 percent of sales, while the North American markets add about 21 percent to sales. Escada has been targeting growth in the Asian markets, which accounted for just 14.5 percent of sales in 2004. Company founder Wolfgang Ley remains its CEO. Escada has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 1986.
Escada was founded in the early 1970s by husband-and-wife team Wolfgang and Margaretha Ley as a knitwear company in Munich, Germany. Sweden's Margaretha Ley had already established a successful career, first as a model for Vienna's Fred Adlimueller, then as a runway model for Parisian designer Jacques Fath in the 1960s. Prior to her modeling career, however, Ley had worked for Sweden's royal tailor Leja, where she gained experience in designing and producing clothing. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ley also worked as a designer for German clothing firm Mondi.
Ley, 37 years old, brought this experience to her marriage with 36-year-old entrepreneur Wolfgang Ley. The couple married in 1974 and launched a contract knitwear business in 1976. The couple found it easy to balance their marriage and working relationships, with Wolfgang Ley taking charge of the financial, administrative, and manufacturing end of the business, and Margaretha Ley establishing the company's reputation for design. As Margaretha Ley explained in an interview in the late 1980s, the company was divided into "two businesses. In Munich we have two buildings--one for design and one for administration. I don't see Wolfgang for weeks unless he's at home."
Margaretha Ley quickly established a reputation for her strong sense of bright colors; Ley was said to have explained that her choice of vivid colors came in reaction to her childhood in Sweden, where the northern light tended to mute colors. Ley's designs, and the company's commitment to the high-quality, luxury goods segment, helped the company grow quickly.
The late 1970s saw the rise of a new breed of clothing company--the designer label. In 1979, the Leys decided to join the designer trend and establish their own brand name. For this the company chose the name Escada, after a thoroughbred race horse in Ireland.
Escada proved a success from the start. At the end of its first year, the company had posted revenues of DEM 22 million. The success of the high-end Escada line encouraged the company to add a second, "bridge" label, called Laurel, featuring designs targeting the mid-price sector. The Laurel label became as successful as its parent, even, by the end of the decade, outselling the Escada brand by number of pieces.
Yet Escada remained the group's flagship. The high-priced line was, as Margaretha Ley herself once described it, "for the working woman with a certain amount of money." Ley's collection was also extensive, designed to clothe a woman from head to toe. By the early 1990s, the Escada line featured more than 1,200 pieces, and included jewelry, handbags, accessories, gloves, scarves, and footwear. Wolfgang Ley quickly steered the group on to an international course. In this, the group was aided by the surge in interest in German fashions during the 1980s, which saw the rise of international labels such as Hugo Boss, Jil Sander, and Joop!, as well as Mondi. Escada itself claimed the position as leader of the country's high-end and couture segments.
Escada expanded rapidly during the 1980s, an expansion aided by the launch of its own chain of retail stores. The company began establishing stores in most of Europe's major cities, as well as in New York, Japan, and elsewhere. The company's entry into the United States came as early as 1981; after several years of losses, the U.S. subsidiary succeeded in generating profits by mid-decade. By 1986, the company's sales had topped $100 million. The United States alone accounted for some 21 percent of the group's sales.
By then, the Leys had begun to eye a still more ambitious expansion strategy, based on building a multi-brand, diversified operation. In order to fuel its expansion, the company turned to the public market. In 1986, Escada went public, listing its stock on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The Leys nonetheless retained 76 percent of the group's common stock (later reduced to 51 percent).
They certainly keep it v. quiet. 
