The Macintosh Retail Group A short summary The Macintosh Retail Group is a
Dutch holding, that today competes in the sectors of clothing, living and
automotives. It consists of the companies Superconfex (clothing), Kwantum,
Tonton Tapis, Bartels Decor, GP Décors, Klerkx Group (living), Halfords
(automotive) and other smaller ones. Today, the group is active in several
European countries, namely the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. Some
numbers for Macintosh 1990-1995 turnover in net profit in number millions of Dfl
millions of Dfl of employees 1990 1,049.6 18.3 5,793 1991 1,070.1 30.5 5,730
1992 1,113.8 29.1 5,750 1993 912.1 51.3 3,616 1994 934.2 38.5 3,737 1995 999.8
22.5 4,136 In 1995 it made a profit of Dfl 22.5 million and employed 4.136
thousand workers.
Looking on the results of 1994, we come to know that the group
made 39% of its profit with fashion, 47% with living and 14% in the automotive
sector, which is probably similar to 1995. During the history of the holding (it
started with being a job creation program in 1932), the structure of the
Macintosh Retail Group changed: Under the name of “Cenfectie Ateliers Chas
Macintosh N.V.” it grew to the largest manufacturer of clothing in Europe in the
1950s and 1960s, which was done by acquire other companies. In the 1960s
Macintosh started producing abroad, in order to remain competitive.
This continued in the 1970s, at which time the production in Western Europe
was nearly phased out because of the costs, especially to Belgium, Portugal and
Tunisia. With creating a separate holding company and separate operation
companies, the organizational structure was totally changed in 1977. But not
even that step prevented the Group of making a negative operational profit of
Dfl 19 millions in 1980. As a result of that, a recovery plan was developed by
the management and a strategic planning process was introduced. It consists of
changing production over to retailing, which is obviously a reason for the fact,
that in 1990 about 90% of total turnover was realized in the retail sector. With
acquisitions of companies of the sectors living and automotive in the last 15
years, the Macintosh Group continued enlarging. A climax of this development may
be seen in the year 1993, in which the Group nearly stopped its complete
production activities. It can be said, that throughout this process it evolved
from a “tailor” to a “retailer”. The expectations of the management for the
future are significantly to increase the number of the shops (334 in 1994), and
consequently of the retail floor space (300.000 square metres in 1994). The
Group tries to strengthen its market positions and to improve productivity.
Strengthen its market positions should be reached with expansion through
acquisitions on the international market, with concentrating in northwestern
Europe. With doing this, Macintosh tries to establish and increase its position
in the market sectors of clothing, living and automotive. Although the sector of
clothes loses its importance within the Group, it is planned to develop this
sector further during the next years.
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