2023-10-14 06:05:00
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“My dad supported me in this transfer of power. We both have big characters and there were small complications. But, overall, it went well and we got along well. still love it.”
Each according to their skills
As for her, she became CEO. “I didn’t impose myself. It was decided quite naturally, explains the former head of the scout unit in Brussels. We were not at all raised with the aim of taking over the company but there are A few years our parents asked us the question: should they sell the stores if an opportunity presented itself? It was then very clear that all three of us wanted to take over and work in the company. The discussion lasted four and a half minutes , watch in hand! Everyone then took on a role according to their skills and desires.”
Maniet: the Belgian shoemaker celebrates its 120th anniversary and wants to expand further
After her business studies in Brussels, Allison Vanderplancke started at the bottom of the ladder in 2014 in the family business. “I was a junior sales manager, with my dad (George, Pascale Maniet’s husband, and former CEO, Editor’s note) who supported me in this transfer of power. We did a lot of things together. We “We both have big characters and there were small complications. But, overall, it went well and we still love each other just as much,” smiles the young thirty-year-old.
But let’s go back 120 years ago. In 1903, the Maniet family opened their first shoe store in Montigny-le-Tilleul in the Charleroi region. Two generations succeed one another. The passion for the sole is passed on. “When I was little, my mother already played saleswoman in her grandparents’ store.” It is finally the third generation who moves the store to the city center of Charleroi. “While shoe production was still important in Belgium in the 1960s, my grandfather was a pioneer in importing Italian shoes that were thinner and more fashionable.”
Market leader in Wallonia
In Brussels, the first Maniet store was first known under the name Alexandra in Brussels (Stockel more precisely). A few years later, in 1989, the major brand was renamed Luxus. Today, the shoe brand has nearly 30 stores divided into two brands, Maniet and Luxus. It distributes shoes from more than 250 suppliers around the world and employs several hundred people.
If Maniet is the market leader in Wallonia, it is absent from the Flemish market. “We have a store in Drogenbos, officially in Flanders. But, in fact, it’s more on the outskirts of Brussels.” How can we explain this lack of interest in the north of the country? “You should never say never but Flanders is not the priority. It is a well-structured and very dense market. There is not really room for a newcomer. And, then, we have our alter ego in the north of the country: Torfs, which is also a family business which dominates its regional market. To each their own region!”
Ecoscores for shoes
Maniet’s extensions will therefore be carried out more in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and in Liège where “there is still potential.” In total, ten additional businesses should open their doors by 2030, while the current presence will be strengthened, in the short and medium term, “both via physical stores and via online sales. But we feel that people have still need to come and try on and get advice on their shoes from our salespeople.”
Alongside these expansion projects, the group also says it attaches great importance to eco-responsibility. “Since 2021, we have developed an ecoscore approach in all our stores,” develops Allison Vanderplancke. “It’s a unique approach on the market, which allows you to note the overall impact of your new pair of shoes, whether environmental or social, in order to buy with full conscience.”
In a few dates:
2011-2013: bachelor of Business administration at the UBI School in Brussels.
2014-2015: multidisciplinary training focused on the specificities of family businesses at the academy of family successors.
2014: junior sales manager then CEO (2018) at Chaussures Maniet SA.
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