Paul & Shark Yachting, the yacht wear and outerwear clothing brand, yesterday opened a new outlet at Pjazza Tigné at Tigné Point, Sliema. Andrea Dini, the company’s chief executive officer, told The Times that Malta was an example of how the brand has been growing over the years.
“We are in fact very happy that Malta now has its very own Paul & Shark flagship outlet, spread over 150 square metres across two floors with one floor solely dedicated to women’s and boys’ collections and one floor to the male collection thus ensuring that patrons will now enjoy the Paul & Shark experience in a holistic way,” Mr Dini said.
Today, Paul & Shark is present in more than 80 countries with over 250 points of sale and another 250 shop-in-shop stores.
“Paul & Shark maintains its competitive advantage thanks to its high quality and stylish functional design. All Paul & Shark clothing features a distinctive edge. The style is elegant and illustrates the best of leisure clothing. The fall is elegant and the cut is immaculate and stitched to perfection. We feel that a big part of the brand’s success is coming from the fact that all collections hold strong appeal among all generations,” he said.
Mr Dini said the company intended to keep expanding the business to those countries where customers are willing to embrace its same values and are eager to associate with its brand and product.
“Lately in fact, we have entered new markets such as India and Iraq where through our promotion of the brand, we also seek to promote the sound Italian values of fashion and tradition. India has been a very successful venture where just a few weeks ago, we opened the third exclusive outlet in the country, in Mumbai.”
The company CEO said the Paul & Shark customer is very loyal to the brand and at least 80 per cent of clients are recurrent customers, saying this was mainly due to quality. Production and manufacturing all take place in Italy, at the company plant in Varese while the cotton for clothing comes from the finest in Egypt and the luxurious wool comes from Australia.
“This shows our commitment to offering the highest quality. Those who wear Paul & Shark associate with the brand because of its unique appeal and the strong visual traits that are conservative but at the same time, in line with today’s fashion trends. Only a brand like Paul & Shark knows how to appeal to the conservative clientele who are still after a fresh and contemporary look,” he said.
Paul & Shark has over the years become synonymous with freedom, casual elegance and comfort around the world, Mr Dini pointed out. The Paul & Shark consumer is “sporty, well off, travels for business or for pleasure and plays at least a couple of sports but, above all, he loves the weekend and relaxing outdoors.”
Mr Dini said that every day the company tries to deliver to its customers what they expect from it.
“We seek to safeguard the integrity of the brand, we never compromise on quality and we retain an extremely selective policy about our product distribution. We also believe that the importance of professional and dedicated partners should never be underestimated. These are the factors that have been guiding us in recent years and which have yielded us with a lot of success. This is how we intend to keep operating and this is why we are very confident about the outlook for 2011 and beyond,” he said.