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Business XXI
possen
The companies of the twenty first century are tired of stultifying company structures. Management team reveals upcoming stars of the Dutch Economy. This time: Fashion Company Possen.
Management Team
22 September 2000
By: Toine van der Heijden
Photography: Georges van Wensveen |
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The floor above the store on the busy Van Baerlestreet in Amsterdam does not appear to be the headquarters of a fast growing new business. In the front room stand a writing desk and a table at which meetings are held, the pile of fresh-ironed shirts tells us that this floor also serves as temporary a guesthouse for employees. This description certainly does not represent a wealthy Internet Company. Possen's plans are just as ambitious as those of the hip startups that are located in that same area of Amsterdam. In this small office all necessary actions are taken on how to make this company a worldwide concept as for men's clothing.
This young company does not have that much available space, but the square meters nearby the Concert Building are well exploited. The store beneath is meant for the first clients that are interested in a made-to-fit suit. On the table lies the planning of a new web site. The official language is English. The new retailer wants to make a complete transaction system on the Internet accessible before autumn. Clients should be able to order a made-to-fit suit via their web site, Possen.com. Not such a simple task after all. This is understood by the reaction we get from those who are present at the meeting. Time is running out and we feel the pressure coming up, there is a long list of details that still needs to be looked through.
Boelo Tijdens answers a phone call from behind his desk, which is located nearby the sunny balcony, from a client who wishes to know whether his suit can be sent to China. "Of course this is possible, Tijdens confirms, but the express service will cost around four hundred guilders." That seems to be no problem for the client. Tijdens smiles. He has sold another suit. Last year he was still working in Brussels as a controller at the European headquarters of the Oil Company Exxon. "I really enjoyed working there. I had a good salary, excellent secondary conditions of employment and a good career perspective. But my career was too predictable. I did not have to think too long when Bas called me up asking me whether I was interested in setting up a new company. I had no expensive mortgage or other commitments, so I quit my job and moved to Amsterdam. The plan sounded convincing and the thought of being able to pioneer really sounded good to me. The first months were pretty exciting, we had to attract new venture capital in order to set up this company. There are several important investors that are interested in us. We are now given the opportunity to go ahead for a while.
Lawyers and Advertising People
Initiator Bas Possen has quit his job for the entrepreneurship. "In the beginning of last year I was still working at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. I studied to become a register-accountant. The financial sector was my specialty but I soon became a consultant for the high-tech sector. That's when I got the idea to start something for myself. The dynamic in this line of business is extremely attractive. I come from a family, which is active in the textile sector. When someone made me aware of the possibility to make made-to-fit clothing for people that would be scanned by a special scanner, I immediately took the chance. That was exactly the combination I was looking for: high-tech and textile."
The method Possen is aiming at is also known as mass customization. Manufacturers usually put up a clothing collection a year before the selling season, and retailers buy their goods half a year before the season starts. What we see are tons of clothes in the shops. The client has to make its choice and whatever remains at the end of the season is sold at minimum prices. With mass customization it works the other way round. Clothes are made once the client has made a choice. The benefit of it all is that the costs are lower for the retailer and the client; the client can make its own choice. All it takes for the client is two weeks of patience for his suit to be ready. "Our delivery period is at this time fifteen working days", Bas Possen explains. "Yet I believe that we will be able to bring it back to two weeks. An express delivery is possible within' five days. We will be working on the logistic part once we are finished with the website and have opened our stores. Distribution should be no problem. The type of client that wants to be measured for a suit does not mind paying a little extra for a perfect delivery."
Important loan
The first real sales location of Possen is at the Baerlestreet. In this flagship store the company sells, without particular marketing effort, ten suits a week (a suit costs about a thousand guilders). Mainly to lawyers and advertising people. This first group buys explicitly classic suit with a fashionable lining. The second group often has special wishes. Possen is actually furnishing a second shop in Antwerp. A mobile store will in the nearby future pay a visit to companies and events were men that wear suits can be found. By then, it should be possible to shop online at Possen. com. "The online sale will start when our clients are satisfied with their first purchase in our store," the initiator tells us. "I do not believe in the internet approach only. It's about the interaction between clicks en bricks. Digitalizing the supply chains is much more interesting, this way we will individualize the demand. That's the real revolution in retail."
Own shops on A-locations, a driving outlet and a website: behind the various sales channels goes a funny story. Possen tells us that he initially only thought of a new shop formula. "Other retailers were experimenting with the scanning method. Only as a supplement - beside the traditional sales from stock - and that is not very clever, at least that is my point of view. I wanted to base the entire formula on scanning. It is everything or nothing. My idea was to first open a shop to improve the system and then to elaborate the concept. That is the exact plan I took to my bank: the SNS bank I have been doing business with for years. They would grant me an important loan, on the condition that everything was well covered. The start was very traditional. The Internet story came later. When we started talking to important investors. They were not really interested in the shops. They wanted to see a business model with more potential and a higher launching speed. That is where Possen came from."
Hans Veldhuizen is responsible for the Internet transformation. He is the founder of the successful Internet Company NedStat that frequently welcomes young entrepreneurs. It happened that Veldhuizen came across the business plan of the "scan store". Bas Possen wanted to make use of the Internet, which would serve as a communication device. "Clever plan, but I had to make him change his mind on certain ideas," Veldhuizen says. "Bas had to think digitally. It is not about advertising through the Internet, it's about selling. Let's be honest, it 's no fun to buy a suit. First you have to find a parking spot, wait for someone to help you and try on the clothes you have chosen. I have a common size, but what if you have no standard size… well you might find yourself in trouble. This scan is the ideal solution. You get scanned once and make your next purchase on-line. My supplier in The Hague has lost one client, that is for sure."
Veldhuizen not only gave Possen the advice to sell through the Internet, he also invested two hundred thousand guilders in the development of this new system. He then brought this young enterprise in contact with big investors that could finance the big expansion. Veldhuizen now functions as the virtual godfather of Possen. The intention is that the client will get scanned once and will then make use of the website to order new clothes. When visiting the shop a virtual twin will be made, the so-called DigiTwin. With this DigiTwin the client can order extra shirts, accessories and a second suit. "Our bait are the suits", Jeff Donlon explains. He is in charge of Possen's e-commerce. "We make money by selling shirts and accessories. That is the foundation of our internet approach". Donlon studied in New York to become an industrial systems engineer. He has enough experience to link the industrial process to the sales interfaces. Before he joined Possen, Jef Donlon worked as a consultant for a telecom consultancy agency. Possen was seeking young talent and that is how the American came in contact with the new company.
Donlon tells us that a small clothing manufacturer was involved in the first experiments with the scanners. This small manufacturer used traditional methods to cut and saw the suits. Employees had to manually insert the scan-data into the cutting machines. By now there also are machines, which process the scan-data directly into the machine. A big clothing manufacturer that has especially installed a production line for mass customization for Possen has purchased this particular system. Three hundred made-to-fit suits can be made on a daily basis. The challenge Possen is now confronting is making the scans accessible for all computer users. It can translate the shopping experience to the Internet. That is quite complicated he explains. He's well aware of the fact that shopping preferences differ from one country to another. Possen has to find a way to satisfy all his clients around the world.
Nuth in Limburg
Donlon is not the only person who is working on the new Possen web site on a daily basis. The company has also hired two specialized designers - an American and an Australian. A Romanian team of programmers is taking care of the web site technique. This team has Coert van der Burg as their leader. A Dutch programmer who lives in Paris. Not such an easy construction, all these employees spread all over Europe. How much does it take to start a new company? They spend a lot of time in airplanes and trains. Van der Burg spent some time in Amsterdam in August, he will travel to Romania in September and will then spend some days in Limburg. Yes, in the southern Limburg.
The official headquarters of Possen are located in Limburg. The picturesque village of Nuth is the place where Wim and Lilly Possen, Bas' parents, live. Their renovated farm at the Valkenburgerweg is the second sales point in The Netherlands and serves as a temporary working place for the programmers and designers. It often happens that Romanians and Americans walk from the small train station to the farm. A two kilometers walk through the hills in Limburg. I don't mind the train, Donlon explains. "We all have our own laptop, which enables us to work while traveling. It is a perfect opportunity to talk business or to think things over. In our business, we can work just about anywhere."
Wim and Lilly Possen are not only involved in this young company just because they are parents of the initiator. When their son decided to quit his job at PriceWaterhouseCooper, they still owned three fashion stores in Kerkrade and Brunsum. "That was the main issue," Bas Possen tells us. "I wanted them to be part of my business because they had gained so much experience throughout the years. I was happy to hear that they were going to sell their shops. I immediately told them about my plans."
Possen's father would smile. "I was shocked when Bas told us about his plans. We had just said goodbye to thirty five years of stress and now my son tells me we wants to quit his job as a register-accountant to start a new business. After fourteen days we had peace with it, we were even enthusiastic. Ever since we have been part of his business. The scan system is perfect. In the early days it used to be so normal to have someone take your sizes for a made-to-fit suit. The client had more influence on his purchase. This creativity has disappeared due to the confection industry. I know all about it. I have sold suits to men for years, they would be satisfied with a suit they had seen in the shop window. Thanks to this scanner and the co-operation with the manufacturer the client can once again make his own choice. Selling becomes more pleasant: you choose a made-to-fit suit together with the client. You are no longer restricted by your own purchase."
Possen senior shows us a brochure of an important fabric manufacturer, he shows us a model of checkered suit. "We had this client from Eindhoven who was really eager to order the same suit. Of course it is possible. Practically every fabric in this brochure can be ordered from stock. The problem with this checkered fabric is that the suit needs to be absolutely perfectly made. Do you see these lines on the jacket? They are symmetrical. The left side of the jacket is identical to the right side. That is how a suit should look like. And take it from me: that is not a simple task with checkered material. It has to be cut precisely and then be put together by a professional. It often goes wrong with traditional confection manufacturers. The checkers often do not correspond on the lapel. With our system we can make that kind of suit for just about anybody, also for those people that have diverging sizes."
Young designers
Wim Possen is already looking forward to welcoming clients that have special desires. Provided that the whole process functions without difficulty. Before this is made possible several stores will have to be opened and the web site has to be active. Possen now has acquired experience with the fast application of common orders - the classic suits, neat gray and dark blue. Once this project is set up, clients with a special desire will also be served. They already have reported their wishes but this is still a side issue. A different future scenario is that Possen dedicates their systems to young designers that want to create out of the ordinary models. Technically spoken that would be no problem. The design can be displayed on the Internet and the client who is brave enough can order it. The risk of the designer and the salesman is limited; the suits are only made once they are sold.
Possen senior's en junior's plans are the perfect illustration of the shock the new economy brings about in the traditional branches of the industry. Al these years Possen has been a retail trade that was only known in Kerkrade and Brunsum. All of a sudden their name appears on one of the facades in the Van Baerlestreet in Amsterdam. With a little luck new stores will be opened next year in Antwerp, Luxemburg, Frankfurt and London. New York is also on the list; Bas Possen has a license to exploit the system in the USA. His father remains calm. "People from our village would often ask me: 'What exactly are you doing?' My answer is quite simple. I am doing what I wish I had done all these years: a real profession. My wife and I could have traveled, but I find this a lot more exciting. I will turn sixty within' four years, I can always bring it to an end. I would rather pioneer for the time being."
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