Corona
On behalf of all our employees, we would like to thank you for every order, your loyalty and your trust.
You are directly securing the jobs of our employees.
Our young team in the administration in Stuttgart-Wangen is incredibly motivated to cope with the current situation.
We now send online orders FROM THE FILIALS - this secures jobs at all locations.
We will - and this is a promise - NOT SICK ANY EMPLOYEES!
We have grown together - we can do it together!
Character shows in the crisis.
Emerges attitude and creativity. Reveals how much resilience a person is equipped with.
Resilience, the ability to cope with difficult situations without long-lasting impairment,
in other words to somehow "put them away", that is what we now need and must prove.
In this context, I would like to assure you that the entire team is mobilized and rolling up its sleeves,
to guarantee you the best shipping service.
Here, all the employees in the stores are also supporting us with the shipping from the locations.
Currently, the online orders are increasing very strongly and every day we hope that the DHL tours at all locations run on time.
We therefore ask for your understanding if your parcel arrives 1-2 days later than usual.
However, in case of returns we guarantee a very fast refundas usual.
SHOES ARE OUR PASSION
JUST DON'T STOP - WAS & IS ALWAYS OUR MOTTO
Therefore, we continue to work intensively - with a safe distance - on the new collection autumn / winter 2020
The entire fashion industry is suffering extremely from the effects of the Corona crisis due to its seasonal products.
Food is vital, other purchases can be postponed. "Fashionable shoes from the spring collection, however, can hardly be sold by fashion retailers in the summer," describes BTE President Steffen Jost. "In this respect, fashion can well be described as 'perishable goods'."
A major problem for the fashion industry is also the long, international supply chain. Even during forced store closures, new merchandise is delivered that was ordered from suppliers months ago and must be accepted and paid for despite the lack of revenue.
It is difficult to suspend deliveries because the industry is in the same situation with its upstream suppliers.
We have a skeleton staff at the head office.
Each workstation suddenly has different or prioritized activities.
In addition, our accounting department has to be maintained. Many other departments are working from home offices.
The continuously arriving invoices have to be paid (on time). For the partly small companies in Spain & Italy reliable payments are now crucial. In addition, our personnel office is still staffed to handle payroll. The procedure with the employment agency regarding short-time allowance (currently we have only made partial and very reduced use of it) means a huge additional effort.
Our marketing department & photo team for the online shop
is still completely on site, as we now want to focus more on online marketing activities.
There is no panic among the employees, but there is a huge uncertainty.
There is - despite all the terrible - a lot of good visible. Therefore, despite all the fear, confidence should prevail.
Covid-19 feels like a huge pause button.
We now have a chance to learn something and perhaps approach life a little more decelerated even after Corona - in all areas.
One challenge is merchandise management.
Ordered goods arrive very late or fail completely. On the other hand, the flow of goods must continue to be paid for.
While many of the big players, from discount giants to department store groups, are scuffing their hooves to get into the anteroom of the ministers responsible for money, a disaster is looming in the otherwise so popular and always so highly praised small and medium-sized businesses.
Particularly hard hit could be those who, in large part, were still among the profitable and winners: local individual houses, often with good credit ratings - historically, culturally, deeply rooted in the cities as employers. They are spread all over the country, but as a whole they are of real size,
including all the industrial links, and are not being listened to - because of all the gigantism.
Most of us have little fear for ourselves, but great respect for the work that is coming our way.
It is our sincere wish to welcome you back to one of our stores soon.
Until the re-start, we'll spruce ourselves up (here's a picture from Hamburg) and then present you with lots of new models.
... but the situation is dramatic and very exciting for us.
Being able to get through such a crisis as a family business is certainly an advantage.
We support each other, and yet everyone knows that it's now down to each individual.
Feeling that cohesion is a very reassuring feeling.
Sir Winston Churchill said during one of his incendiary speeches during World War II:
"Never give in, never, never, never"
Now is the time again to remember such guiding principles. We will never give in!
We are grateful for your loyalty and solidarity during this challenging time.
Please stay healthy and take care of yourself!
Felix Horsch & Dennis Hanninger