RTC's fashion division drops all brands except Debenhams and Aldo

Bogdan Macarie, former member in the management team of Băneasa Shopping City centre, was recruited by RTC's Octavian Radu in the first part of this year to handle international expansion of the company's fashion division, as well as the restructuring of the Romanian business.

Rafar Distribution Group, the fashion division of RTC, has dropped nine brands this year that it had managed to add to its portfolio in the past three years, but which in times of crisis were not able to convince Romanian customers to buy, dragging the division's sales down 25% this year against 2009.
The brands dropped from RTC's fashion portfolio include Kipling, Mandarina Duck, Olsen and Sacoor Brothers, with the company now focusing exclusively on Debenhams and Aldo, the only brands the group kept in the clothing, accessories and footwear segment.
"We kept in our portfolio only the brands that met our expectations in Romania, i.e. Debenhams and Aldo, which accounted for more than half the turnover. With Debenhams, we have a very good reason to invest massively in the brand, because we will start its international expansion. We decided to close the stores operating under the other brands. But we don't rule out resuming collaboration with these brands in the future on a case-by-case basis," Bogdan Macarie, CEO of the division, told ZF.