Estelle Lefébure was the first Guess girl. The French actress and model, at that unknown moment, became the first of a long list of names that wrapped some jeans Guess: from Claudia Schiffer to Eva Herzigova, passing through Naomi Campbell, Paris Hilton or Carla Bruni. “He glamour Legendary of Hollywood with a touch of French natural elegance ”is the phrase that Guess uses to explain what the Marciano brothers began the construction of their empire, Today in low hours for a product that has ceased to be competitive, a marketing strategy that no longer sells and numerous scandals that have been making a dent in the business.
The origins of the Martian brothers cannot be further from the brand they founded in the eighties. Although they were born in Morocco, Georges, Armand, Maurice and Paul raised in Marseille within a very humble family of Italian origin, children of an orthodox rabbi.
when they were young, the brothers worked in the family business of clothing (MGA, for the acronym of Maurice George and Armand) and opened a series of clothing stores in the French Riviera. At the end of the seventies, they left them behind (together with a debt of around ten million dollars in taxes) and emigrated to the United States.
Guess was born from the hand of the Marciano brothers, who after launching the company separated their paths
The official history tells that the Marciano brothers settled in Los Angeles after spending a vacation in the city and falling in love with it. His departure to the United States agreed, however, with the rise to the power of the socialist François Mitterrand, a stage in which other entrepreneurs also left the country.
Guess began his journey in 1981, first with Georges and Maurice and then with Armand and Paul. The first was taken for design, what positioned Guess in the beginning; the second led the product development; The third carried distribution and Paul took the front and promoted Guess marketing, which would become the true sign of the brand.
They were the eighties and sex sold. And Guess leaned on it. Paul Marciano was proud (and continues to do so) to have discovered some of the most relevant modelslike Eva Herzigova, who after posing for Guess starred in Wonderbra’s announcement that made him go around the world.
“My brothers wanted the product to be the protagonist, but I was clear that it was about creating an image. If you look, in any of my campaigns the cowboys are protagonists,” Paul Marciano explained to the magazine Vanity Fair. “It is no mystery, the reason we never went to Supermodelos: we had no money to pay them,” Marciano acknowledged, who also stressed that most Guess campaigns were in black and white, for not even Denim’s blue called attention to the models.
Guess’s first great success were the Cowgirls Marilynextremely tight pants with three zippers. With distribution in a single Beverly Hills store and a distribution agreement with Bloomingdale’s, Guess sales reached six million dollars in just one year, according to an item of Forbes.
To deal with its development, In 1983 the company sold 50% of its capital to the Nakash brothers (Joseph, Abraham and Raphael), from New York, for 4.7 million dollars. Although the alliance seemed fruitful, soon the Martian brothers denounced that their partners copied the designs. The Nakash brothers, owners of the Jordache brand, accused the Martian of paying salaries above those established in the contracts.
Demand after demand, the two groups of brothers reached an agreement in 1990. The terms of it never revealed, but the Martian emerged as the only owners of Guess. But at that time, the differences between the Martian on the course that the company should take were more than evident. Georges then decided to sell his participation to his brothers who, to finance the operation, took the company in 1996.
To launch the company, the Marciano allied with the Nakash brothers, with whom they reached the courts
Guess, which despite being a quoted company has always managed as a family business, began to weaken from 2000, when its sales were 779 million dollars and its net profit at 16.49 million dollars. Two years later, in 2002, the company’s sales had fallen up to 583 million dollars and the company had entered losses, with red numbers of 11.28 million dollars.
A decade after the company’s departure from the company (which ended up demanding the company for brand infractions), another brother, Armand, also left the company, although discreetly. Paul and Maurice then became Cons CEOs, although Maurice would end up leaving the position in 2007, leaving Paul only at the head of the group.
Paul’s departure from his executive functions in the company would be everything but discreet. At the beginning of 2018, the businessman was ceased after the Kate Upton model accused him of having sexually attacked her during a lingerie campaign in 2010.
With the company already fully led by an external executive, Carlos Alberini, the company closed 2019 with a turnover of 2,609 million dollars and a fourteen million dollar benefit. Alberini had relieved Spanish Víctor Herrero (from Inditex), who had signed for Guess as CEO in 2015.
One more step in the loss of relevance of the Martian brothers in Guess could occur in the coming months. In mid -March, Whp Global presented an offer to get one hundred percent of Guess to exclude it from the New York Stock Exchange, in an operation that would value the company at 751 million dollars.
Whp’s offer excludes the actions that are currently in the hands of Paul and Maurice Marciano, as well as those of the executive president, Carlos Alberini. Together, the three have approximately 43% of the company, leaving WHP the possibility of taking the remaining 57% and, therefore, the control of the company.
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