BUYER BLOG
oodji- Chronicle
1998
The company was founded under the registered trademark OGGI, which means‘ today’ in Italian language. A team of 20 members started designing collections for young women who wanted to look stylish and fashionable. The apparel was made at the local factories in Saint Petersburg.
1999
OGGI opened the first ten 100 m ² stores in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The collections expanded to 600 designs per year. The fashionable, high-quality clothing at affordable prices became extremely popular among young female customers following which the company started developing rapidly.
2002
The company started operating 150 stores in Russia. The first 400 m ² stores were opened and apparel collections expanded. Moving production to China allowed the company to reduce prices.
2005
The company became closer to the fashion world by opening a design studio in Paris. The international team of Russian and French designers started developing new collections together.
2008
OGGI operated 300 stores in Russia. New stores were opened in Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
2011
The company launched the men’ s apparel collection. The clothing range expanded to 5,000 designs per year and the first 1,000 m ² stores were opened. Due to its venture into the European market, the company changed its brand name to OODJI. The first store with this new name opened in the Czech Republic and Poland.
2013
The company’ s turnover reached Euro 380 million. The OODJI brand stepped into the future by launching an online store. Young people welcomed the wide range of clothing, the service and affordable prices. Online sales became popular among customers.
2015
The company had 2, 500 employees and 350 stores in 7 countries. The company’ s presence expanded worldwide.
2016
The brand’ s collections were made available in Germany, England, France, Italy, and Spain besides the online platform of Amazon Europe.
An oodji store
FACT SHEET
oodji Stores Russia: 252 Ukraine: 28 Kazakhstan: 5 Armenia: 2 Poland: 15 Czech Republic: 4 Belarus: 5 Kyrgyzstan: 3 Moldova: 5 Slovakia: 2 for every season … For every style in each season, we have at least 6 months to develop samples, place orders and start production. Lead time thus is not a big challenge.” What’ s more, the suppliers also need not spend big from their pocket when it comes to PD and innovation as most of oodji’ s collections( style, colour and look) are developed by its France-based designer office( for men’ s line) while that for the women’ s is handled by the Russian office.
Going forward, Nipun plans now to increase the Bangladesh office’ s turnover( from the current US $ 20- 25 million / year) substantially in the next two years. Being in sync with this goal, oodji is mulling to shift some knit orders from Uzbekistan to Bangladesh provided manufacturing cost is compatible.“ I am also planning to develop some good suppliers for outerwear as we have sizeable outerwear collection, which so far is sourced from China,” says Nipun adding that Russia, in near future, will turn out to be a very exciting export destination for Bangladesh.
For Nipun, Russia would be one of the biggest markets for apparel in another 4-5 years and he hints at the local manufacturers to target the same. This is all the more probable with an increasing number of Russian buyers already flocking Bangladesh to source their requirements!
“ There are already 6-7 prominent Russian buyers in Bangladesh, including names like Austin, Gloria Jeans, and many more who are coming soon,” concludes Nipun on a positive note.
22 Apparel Online Bangladesh | July 2018 | www. apparelresources. com