Updated Penguin Looks West
Original Penguin, the 1950s golfwear brand revived by Perry Ellis International Inc. in 2003, is swinging into California this year to open boutiques.
A 2,500-square-foot Original Penguin store opened March 30 at Newport Beach’s Fashion Island shopping center. Chris Kolbe, the 36-year-old president and brand manager of Original Penguin, also said that a store would open on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles by the end of 2006. He also expressed an interest in building a store in Northern California.
Original Penguin opened a boutique in New York three years ago and another one in Miami’s South Beach in 2005.
Kolbe dismissed notions that his brand had ambitions to build a retail division that would open stores in major malls across the United States. Instead, Kolbe intends to use the stores as places where consumers and retailers can get better acquainted with the brand.
“We’d be wise to focus on the top 12 markets in the U.S.,” he said. “It will help us build our wholesale business as much as our retail business.”
In Los Angeles, the brand is sold at such high-profile specialty stores as American Rag Cie, Madison and Barneys New York.
Original Penguin’s revenue has doubled each year since it was reintroduced in 2003, according to Kolbe. Miami- based Perry Ellis reported fiscal 2006 revenues of $849.4 million—a 29.4 percent increase over fiscal 2005.
The company’s 2006 revenue experienced a 30 percent increase due to the acquisition of casualwear company Tropical Sportswear International, according to Perry Ellis’s recent Security and Exchange documents. The company had a 3 percent increase in its core menswear operations.
Original Penguin’s core demographic is men and women in their 20s. The brand’s chief mission when it was reintroduced to the market was to update the look of its 1950s-era image—when it was the preferred brand of golf legend Arnold Palmer—to something the modern metrosexual would be proud to have in his wardrobe.
Kolbe said the brand was given a contemporary look, with better fabrics, new details and different trims. The brand also ventured into new categories such as denim and swimwear. It also in the last two years launched accessory licenses such as watches and eyewear. The brand will debut its premium Black Label for Fall 2006. —Andrew Asch
