1980 Crisis and takeover

1980 Retail Stores

From the beginning of the 1980s onwards, the company increasingly fell into a crisis. During this time the company Bleyle had many elegant retail stores, thus on Königstraße 68 in Stuttgart, in Osnabrück, Baden-Baden or Konstanz, where at last in the puristic-elegant ambience high-priced clothing was offered. Bleyle positioned itself in the premium segment and tried to compete with high-priced brands like Escada, Rodier or Bogner.

At this time, there were 45 own Bleyle shops and 60 franchise stores.It was tried to rejuvenate the collections, which were regarded as somewhat stale. This strategy was abandoned, after the mainstream reacted frightfully and younger customers could not be won. The 1980s employed Bleyle still scarcely more than 1000 employees and achieved with an overall turnover of 230 million DM a loss of 25 million DM.