Wolford
Wolford AG, headquartered in Bregenz on Lake Constance is an Austrian manufacturer of textiles in the top price segment focusing on tights and bodysuits, but also sells women's clothing, lingerie and accessories. Due to sales growth from these relatively new product lines they could achieve a turnaround in 2006.
Overall, the Wolford Group had at the end of April 2013 over 267 boutiques of which 181 are owned and run by 86 partners.
The manufacturer is known for his Nahtlosprodukte like tights, but also through his work with photographers such as Helmut Newton and designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Vivienne Westwood.
In fiscal year 2012/13 ( 1 May 2012 - 30 April 2013 ) achieved the 1995 listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, with approximately 1,600 employees, a turnover of 156.47 million euros.
History
( † 1983 * 1903) from Vienna Wolford was registered in 1950 as a brand by the industrialist Reinhold Wolff from Vorarlberg and the retail entrepreneur Walter Palmers. With used American Cotton Machine for the first time, the polyamide fiber was processed into stockings.
1964, the company launched in addition to their core business with jumpers the production of women's outerwear and it opened a production line operation in Schoppernau. 1968 has started with the production of the then fashionable and novel stay up stockings with adjustable elastic band without resounding commercial success in retrospect.
The first foreign branch office was opened in 1971 St.Margrethen in Switzerland, in Germany four years later in Munich. Today, there are 16 subsidiaries.
With "Miss Wolford " came in 1977, the first transparent support tights on the market.
In the 1980s, Wolford made in collaboration with Chantal Thomas, the first elastic lace tights with the typical loop design of the artist on the market.
In the early 1990s the first bodysuits were offered without side seams and in the late 1990s and tights for men were added to the range under the name "waist socks". The production and their distribution were already set but again because of lack of success. The product group Bodywear has been extended to most seamless underwear.
On 14 February 1995, the producers went with the "Lady share " in Vienna and Paris to the stock market. The stock reached in early 2007 with almost 40 euros on the stock exchange in Frankfurt, the all-time high and lost thereafter until the end of 2008 over 75 % of their value and only stood at just over 10 euros per share. As a result of developments Wolford suffered a slump in profits, furthermore, the gearing ratio increased from 38.2 % ( 2007) to 51.4 % ( 2008).
Since early 2006, Wolford has its core business, the production of pantyhose, extended. In addition to tights and body and Swimwear have since also women's clothing such as pants, skirts, suits, sweaters and coats on the shelves.
Wolford AG in Bregenz by July 10, 2007, all shares of the Company Wolford Belgium NV taken in Kontich.
For a long time the company Wolford pays special attention to the area "Ready -to-wear " to strengthen the market position of the luxury brand internationally. In the body-forming, so-called " shaping" products Wolford 2010/2011 recorded growth.
On September 7, 2013 passed away the long-standing chairman Theresa Jordis.