CEO Today Business Women of the Year Awards

www.ceotodaymagazine.com 16 CEO Today Business Women of the Year Awards 2018 GERMANY STELLA AHLERS ABOUT STELLA AHLERS Dr. Stella A. Ahlers serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Ahlers AG. Dr. Ahlers serves as the President of the Advisory Board at Adolf Ahlers AG. Dr. Ahlers has been the Chairwoman of the Management Board at Ahlers Ag since July 12, 2005 and has been its Member of Management Board since June 1, 2005. Dr. Ahlers serves as a Member of Advisory Council at DZ Bank AG. He served as a Member of the Supervisory Board at KSB Aktiengesellschaft since May 11, 2016 until March 20, 2017. CEO of Ahlers AG FIRM PROFILE Ahlers AG is a leading listed manufacturer of men’s fashion in Europe. This innovative and well-capitalised company looks about on over 95 years of swift and flexible adjustment to the requirements of the times and the markets. For many decades Ahlers has been a reliable partner to mid-sized and major specialist retailers. Ahlers is one of the major European players who live up to high standards of quality both in terms of their brands and their products. Objectives and strategy Solid, sustainable and profitable growth is the objective for the medium-term development of our company. The following strategic measures are designed to help achieve this goal: Growth driven by the Pierre Cardin, Pioneer and Baldessarini brands Having steadily grown the revenues of its premium segment in recent years, Ahlers today generates more than two thirds of its revenues in this attractive segment of the fashion market. We intend to drive domestic and international growth through our Baldessarini and Pierre Cardin core brands. To achieve this objective, a focus will be placed on sharpening the brand profiles, expanding the collections and continuing our internationalisation. For Pierre Cardin, we want to expand the French, Spanish and Belgian markets and push ahead with retail space expansion throughout Europe. Following the start-up of the Russian joint venture, we intend to install a sales organisation for Pierre Cardin to intensify existing customer relations, e.g. through the introduction of NOS services as well as to win new customers. As far as Baldessarini is concerned, we will push ahead with the brand’s international expansion in Europe and overseas. In addition, the new Managing Director is tasked with developing a strategy for making inroads into the Asian markets in 2018. The Pioneer Authentic Jeans brand will be turned from a jeans specialist into an integrated lifestyle brand offering not only jeans but also tops. We want to grow primarily at the specialist retail level and will therefore continue to refine our partnership schemes and POS concepts. We want to expand our own Retail operations selectively and optimise existing store concepts. Being a fast growing distribution channel, the e-commerce segment is of great strategic importance and will therefore be strengthened further organisationally, with priority attached to wholesale e-commerce distribution. Licenses are to expand the product ranges of our brands and strengthen their respective brand identities.