Between department stores and single-brand stores, the retail development marks a change of pace in the development of the Drumohr brand, founded in 1770 and today part of the Brescia-based Ciocca group, which has been active in the production of socks for 110 years. «We have opened a boutique dedicated to the men’s collection in the center of Rome, in via di Campo Marzio. In the coming months, however, we will expand the Turin store in via Lagrange to make room for the women’s collection and we are planning another important opening: in Milan, in via della Spiga ”, explains managing director Michele Ciocca.
The development of the women’s line
The strengthening of the network of single-brand stores, in addition to the corners in Rinascente in Milan, Rome Piazza Fiume and Florence and 420 multi-brand stores in Italy and abroad, is an important step in the growth of the brand, thanks to the expansion of the women’s collection that today it absorbs about 20% of its turnover and which Ciocca aims to bring to 50%: “We wanted to dress the wives of Drumohr customers while maintaining the key elements of the brand, such as bright colors or jacquard motifs, and reinterpreting them in a feminine and contemporary way and is giving new impetus to the women’s line. So we need to find ad hoc commercial spaces that tell the new chapter of this book ».
The double soul of the brand
The book Ciocca talks about begins in 2006 when his father, passionate about the Drumohr brand, took over the brand and part of the archive one year after the company’s bankruptcy. And he then entrusted him with this bridge project between Italy and the United Kingdom, whose lowest common denominator is excellence: «The substance is all Italian, given that the garments are produced in our company but the heritage remains strong in creativity. We try to combine two worlds: we have replicated and maintained typical Scottish processes and most of the raw materials still come from the United Kingdom, but Italian innovation, both in terms of design and technology, plays a very important role “, explains the administrator. delegate.
This double soul represents an international driving force for the brand, which closed 2021 at 10.5 million euros and is expecting to end 2022 with a turnover of between 12 and 13 million euros: “We make 50% of revenues beyond the border. The main foreign market is Japan, which accounts for about 25%, then there are South Korea, the United States and Northern Europe. Also on the retail front I would like to look beyond the border, starting from Europe – explains Ciocca – even if after the Italian openings we have worked on in recent years we will stop for a while ». Drumohr is already present in some of the best known department stores, such as Isetan in Tokyo and Le Bon Marché in Paris.
The digital channel
Alongside physical retail, there are also digital channels that are registering growth: «We have entered some platforms like Farfetch thanks to our physical customers and they are doing very well. Then we have the ecommerce platform, which we brought back in-house during the pandemic, and today it represents the third store by turnover “. Among the novelties of the brand also the launch of the children’s line, produced and distributed from the Italian company La stupenderia.