Mexx

History

In the 1970s, fashion designer Rattan Chadha and his business partners PK Sen Sharma, Adu Advaney, Suveer Arora, Ronny Lemmens, Horatio Ho and Arun Mehta (known as the Founders of the company) supplied clothes for department and wholesale stores in the Netherlands, which were specifically designed and labelled for the stores. Revamping the business in 1980, they created two popular clothing brands—"Moustache" for men and "Emanuelle" for women. Both labels had coordinated collections focused on lifestyle and youth fashion. In 1986, the two brand names were merged to form: M (from Moustache) + E (from Emanuelle) + XX (an abbreviation for "kiss kiss") to create MEXX.

Over time, Mexx has grown to become an international brand with over 800 stores in 55 countries and more than 10,000 point of sales. It has grown rapidly and is now an internationally prominent company, employing over 6,000 people worldwide.

In 2001, Mexx was bought by the U.S. fashion company Liz Claiborne for $264 million and an Earn out which amounted to another $275 Million. Thus, for many years it belonged to the Liz Claiborne group—a multi-brand business listed on the New York stock exchange that markets fashion, design, accessories and perfume internationally. In 2011, Liz Claiborne, as part of a restructuring, sold Mexx to private equity firm The Gores Group at a loss but retained a minority interest in the Mexx chain of stores.

Bankruptcy

In 2012, Mexx already reported a loss of 86 million euros and in 2013 a loss of 82 million euros.

On December 4, 2014, three holding companies of Mexx were declared bankrupt by the district court of Amsterdam. On December 5, 2014, Frits Kemp, a high-profile lawyer in the Netherlands declared 315 Mexx stores, which serves worldwide including 95 Locations in Canada, bankrupt. The stores are expected to remain open while the chain sells off merchandise.

Eroglu Holding new owners Mexx

On January 29, 2015, Turkish Eroglu Holding has acquired fashion brand Mexx and plans to relaunch several dozen stores all across Europe. Since February 2015 Mexx has re-opened full prices stores and outlet centers across Europe.

Product palette

Mexx did not just offer contemporary fashion but also diverse lifestyle products. Besides Mexx fashion for men, women and children, Mexx products ranged from shoes to accessories, such as bags and scarves, to fragrances, carpets and bed linen.

It is to be noted that the license for Mexx Eyewear (ophthalmic frames and sunglasses) is held by German distributor OWP and is not affected by the bankruptcy.

International business

The company’s collections and accessories were sold in over 300 own retail stores, famous department stores, chain stores, specialist stores and nearly 300 franchise stores.

The number of Mexx stores on 16 August 2015: