For the skiers of Europe and America this is a magical time of year, when the snowpack is at its deepest and the apres-ski buzzing.
If you’ve spent time in a premier ski resort like St. Moritz in Switzerland, Aspen in the United States, or France’s Courchevel, you’ll know that retail therapy is a major part of the experience. And one of the boutiques that the ski cognoscenti are increasingly making a beeline for is Ogier.
The company is a relative newcomer in the world of high-end private label clothing, having opened its first popup store in Megève around a decade ago. Today there are six Ogier boutiques open with more in the pipeline, including plans to enter major city destinations such as Dubai, Las Vegas and London.
Generational talents
The brand’s CEO and driving force is Glion alumnus Laurent Ogier, but there are three generations of Ogiers within the corporate DNA.
“After the second world war my grandfather settled in the Haute-Savoie region of France and opened a factory creating fabrics from wool,” Laurent explains. “He also became one of the country’s earliest accredited ski instructors – in fact we still have his official bronze medal and it carries the number six, meaning he was just the sixth person to receive one!
“My father inherited that love of skiing and he competed at international level in his 20s, plus he was also a world champion in rock climbing. And it was he who first ventured into the retail business, with the Ogier Sports stores that carried various premium skiwear brands.
“These developed into quite experiential stores for their time, with lounge and bar areas which are pretty common in luxury boutiques today, but not so back in the late 1980s. This was the environment I grew up in, where client experience was key, and it was one of the reasons I chose to study my degree at a hospitality school.”
A business transformed
As the skiwear market became ever more competitive, the wholesale model deployed by Ogier Sports began to unravel, with the retailer constantly at the mercy of the brands it stocked. By the mid-2010s margins had reduced to unsustainable levels, necessitating a change of direction.
Still a student at Glion, but with a burning desire to develop the family business, Laurent’s answer was to switch from wholesaler to private label, putting the Ogier name not just on the storefront but on the garments and accessories too.
“Now we have our own supply chain, with a fantastic manufacturer in Italy that produces 100% of our ranges. It means we can be very creative with the materials we use, so we’ve established our own research department which is focused on innovations in fabrics,” Laurent continues.
One of the most significant results of this approach is the brand’s exclusive Zibellino cashmere, which Laurent says is the softest, thinnest, yet most resilient cashmere fabric ever made. It features threads sourced from the high plateaus of Mongolia, which then undergo a meticulous process of refinement, softening and coloration to create a finish that is featherlight, irresistibly soft, protective, and enduring.
The Zibellino cashmere is certainly helping to get the brand noticed, but the biggest selling Ogier range is the women’s Lapland Ski Jacket, made from New Zealand-sourced merino wool to offer exceptional comfort and performance. Fully waterproof, it’s an elegant piece that’s equally at home in an urban location as well as on the ski slopes.
Complete control
Having total control of manufacturing and distribution means the brand can also venture beyond pure skiwear to offer ready-to-wear items and footwear for both men and women. In fact, Laurent notes that skiwear today represents just 30% of total sales.
“Everything for us is about quality and attention to detail,” he adds. “We’ve become famous due to our quality, not due to our marketing spend. We have a very small team relative to the size of the business; I act as creative director as well as CEO, working with my team and our manufacturer to design the collections. This ability to grow without adding substantially to payroll is very important for a business nowadays.”
As you might expect from a hospitality graduate, Laurent also takes great pride in the ambiance and customer experience offered by the Ogier boutiques.
“We sell ultra luxury items so of course our boutiques have to feel like luxury spaces. But it’s more than that; we want to provide a warm and cozy environment, and this is one of the reasons why we use real wood for our store interiors. It generates a pleasant natural aroma throughout the store as well as helping to connect us with nature and the outdoors.”
This warmth also extends to the store staff, who are tasked with demonstrating a humbleness of approach regardless of the exclusivity reflected by the price tags.
“We see the mountain as a playground and our clientele are people who like to have fun in the mountains, whether skiing, climbing or hiking. Importantly, we also treat men and women the same when it comes to our product ranges. We have a 50:50 customer split and I believe that gives us a competitive advantage over some brands that don’t serve both genders so evenly.”
Tapping into luxury hospitality
In addition to the growing store network and burgeoning online sales from a recently revamped website, Ogier is forging retail partnerships with luxury hotel groups, including Rosewood, which will see the company’s clothing sold in ski resort hotels. There are also relationships with prestigious individual properties, including Badrutt’s Palace in St. Moritz and St. Regis Aspen.
But perhaps the most exciting development in recent months has been the arrival of Dan Mamane as an investor in Ogier, with a reported 50% share in the business.
Laurent is delighted to welcome the Franco-Swiss entrepreneur to the Ogier family. “First and foremost, he’s a client who I first met in one of our boutiques while he was there shopping with his wife. We talked a little at that time, but it wasn’t the right moment to think about a potential investment. Now we are definitely ready to benefit from his expertise in scaling a business.”
While growth is very much top of the company agenda, numbers matter less to Laurent than an ability to grow while maintaining the quality of his concept.
“We must stay true to who we are, deliver the best, and build this element of desirability which will get even more people talking about us. Then the scalability will flow from how well we organize ourselves,” he says.
“If we can keep offering as good or even better quality than today, where we have six or seven boutiques, then the numbers will follow.”
• To discover more about Maison Ogier, visit the website
