John Rocha makes dramatic alterations

Women who admire John Rocha's clothes will be disappointed next September. Due to a restructuring of the Dublin-based designer's business arrangements, he has been obliged to skip the autumn/winter season for womenswear in the expectation of delivering not just more but better in spring 2001.

By then, thanks to deals currently being finalised with several companies including British chainstore Debenhams, the John Rocha name ought to be found on a wide variety of products in addition to clothing. The designer's absence from the catwalk during London Fashion Week last month had caused considerable speculation that his business was in trouble but he insists his business is more buoyant than ever before.

Last week, he told The Irish Times that he had never been busier or enjoying the variety of work more. And, he said, while fashion remained at the heart of his business, it was unlikely ever again to be his only concern.

Mr Rocha first announced his intention to restructure last October. However, the process has proven to be more complex than originally expected and a key licence agreement has yet to be signed. This is with a company in Portugal which will manufacture, distribute and market his womenswear line.

In future, Rocha is to be responsible only for the design of clothes carrying his label. A similar arrangement for his menswear has already been signed with another Portuguese manufacturer, Maconde Confeccoes Sa.

Because of this fundamental alteration in business, Rocha and his wife Odette registered a new limited company, Three Moon Design, of which they are the two directors. Until now, all the designer's operations were run by Glibro Design, a company established with Odette Rocha's brothers John and Frank Gleeson in 1994.

Prior to that date, Rocha worked with A Wear, part of the Brown Thomas group and had also had two other fashion companies during the 1980s. Glibro will continue to exist as it was with this company four years ago that Waterford Crystal signed a contract for Rocha to design a range of glassware. Launched in May 1997, the Waterford line has been highly successful for both the crystal company and the designer with sales consistently surpassing expectations.

This beneficial arrangement has encouraged John Rocha to emulate other designers in Europe and the United States who do not manufacture or distribute any products themselves but enter into licensing agreements with other companies. Where this occurs, the designer in question can concentrate purely on design and not be distracted by other business concerns.

Rocha now expects to do just that and has, therefore, shed a number of elements which he had accumulated in recent years. A shop he opened in central London in November 1998 was closed last month and staff numbers at his Dublin headquarters have been halved from the 20 employees who worked there last year.

The premises he has been occupying in Rathmines is now on the market and late next month he intends to move into new offices on Hume Street in the centre of the city.

From here, according to his financial controller Mr Donal Bolger, Mr Rocha will run a business focusing solely on design.

"It was a necessary direction for the company to go in," Mr Bolger says. "We wanted to set up an infrastructure where we became a pure design company and serviced various licence partners.

"In September we had a warehouse facility and all the elements to manufacture, deliver and sell clothing. From then until December, we executed everything necessary to get the company acting as a design house."

The old company's turnover last year was in the region of £5 million (€6.35 million) and while the figure for this year is certain to be smaller, Mr Bolger points out that this will be "royalty income".

The agreement signed last winter with Maconde Confeccoes is typical of what is intended for Rocha's future. One of Portugal's largest companies, it will pay the designer to produce a new collection each season for both his main and jeanswear lines on which he can expect to receive a royalty.

While Mr Bolger will not divulge details of royalty payments,these usually vary between 5 and 15 per cent of sales. Although Maconde Confeccoes was interested in assuming responsibility for womenswear as well, Rocha has opted to give this licence to another Portuguese company with which he expects to sign a contract in the next month. By the time the twice-yearly catwalk fashion shows are held again in London in September, he will be ready to offer retailers a full line of womenswear once again.

Mr Bolger says that Rocha's prospective licence partner sees high-profile fashion shows as "a pretty fundamental part of the marketing strategy. In all licence agreements, we've been very careful to include a strong element of marketing and promotional control.

"When we take on a partner, we spend a lot of time maximising the benefits of that relationship." Licence agreements usually have a lifespan of between five and 10 years. At the moment, eyewear, jewellery and footwear licences are all being considered.

Meanwhile, the designer is also pursuing a number of other business partnerships in the area of interior design, following his much-publicised association with the decoration of Dublin's Morrison Hotel which opened last year.

The Morrison Hotel has just won an award for the best new bar and restaurant in Britain and Ireland from Design Week magazine (which gives them out annually) with the credit for design going to John Rocha and Douglas Wallace Architects (responsible for the hotel). Bolger says Rocha is looking at other property-related options in the residential, hotel and leisure sectors.

He also explains the designer is "developing an Internet strategy. We're trying to develop an e-commerce mission within the company as to where we see opportunities for John Rocha. It's most likely that will involve taking on a partner who's been through a three or five-year cycle in this medium and knows how to avoid the pitfalls."