Esprit Names Chief Product & Design Officer To Help Rebuild Brand

Esprit Holdings Ltd. (0330.HK) has named Melody Harris-Jensbach chief product and design officer at the blue-chip fashion retailer in a move aimed at rebuilding its international brand at a time of intense market competition amid a weakening global economy.

Esprit said Monday that Harris-Jensbach, who is also joining the company's board, will oversee the product creation and design of all of Esprit's divisions and global license business.

Harris-Jensbach returns to Esprit after earlier leaving to join Puma AG in January 2008 as deputy chief executive and chief product officer. Her last position at Esprit was international product director and global business manager.

The high-profile hire comes as Esprit presses on with a strategic overhaul aimed at reviving its brand identity. It has struggled in recent years to reinvigorate its performance through initiatives that include brand rebuilding and cost cutting. Its reliance on Europe for most of its revenue has been a burden lately, with persistent economic weakness there stunting growth.

In September last year, after reporting a 98% plunge in its fiscal 2011 net profit, Esprit declared it had "lost its soul" and presented plans to divest itself of its North America business and drop retail operations in three major European countries. The company also said it would invest more than 18 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$2.32 billion) over the next four years to rebuild its brand, which competes globally with the likes of Hennes & Mauritz AB's H&M and Inditex SA's Zara.

-By Hong Kong Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; [e-mail]