Everything is getting more expensive right now.

Also men's shirts?

Or do you have to offer shirts like sour beer to even knock them off?

Mark Bezner, the entrepreneur behind the German shirt market leader Olymp, doesn't want to talk about this topic at all.

Actually, he should raise the prices because the costs have risen so much.

Cotton in the beautiful, long-staple quality that is used for Olymp shirts has become a quarter more expensive within a few weeks.

Calculated over the year, there is an increase in costs of up to 134 percent, depending on the variety, reports Bezner in an interview with the FAZ and adds: "Synthetic fibers are even worse." The total cost of sales has risen by four percentage points.

Susanne Preuss

Business correspondent in Stuttgart.

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Yes, the Olymp boss confirms at some point: next year, fashion will be more expensive, as will Olymp's “core product”, i.e. shirts. But it is a delicate matter. According to the classic calculation, which has brought the family company uninterrupted growth and an equity ratio of over 50 percent over the past 25 years, Olymp would have to increase the price for the classic 59 euro shirt to 79 euros.

But whether the market can do that?

"I find it difficult to catapult myself out of a certain price range", Bezner remarks tellingly.

The competitor Eterna, number two in the German shirt market with less than half the Olymp sales, is currently in a restructuring process and the creditors of a bond have been fobbed off with 12.5 percent of their claims.

In such situations, pricing in the market gets mixed up.

Ties and home office

Do you still need men's shirts at all?

The business uniform has been under scrutiny at the latest since company bosses in more conservative industries took off their ties.

Ever since working from home in the pandemic, men have been considering which video conference they should really go to in a classic men's shirt.

Closed shops and a lack of business trips made people go without shirts.

In addition, there were no occasions to dress formally - an effect that is now increasing again with the skyrocketing number of infections.

Last year, Olymp sales dropped from 268 to 191 million euros.

There is no sign of any catch-up effects as in other industries.

"This year will be miserable", Bezner is aware.

In the order of magnitude of 165 million euros sales could still be achieved, he expects.

Perhaps, as Bezner admits, even more would have been possible had he not been so pessimistic himself. But if you have 65 of your own shirt shops and have not sold anything there for months, then you don't fill the warehouse with new goods, says the Olymp boss of his own corona shock. "I lacked the courage," says the 58-year-old grandson of the company founder. He has no practice with crises either. For 25 years things have always been looking up, for 25 years they have been doing what is considered normal in Swabian family businesses: putting money aside just in case. It never came before, but now, Bezner admits, the liquidity situation is tense. Olymp had to ask the banks to increase the credit lines, and KfW was also used.For the first time, the bottom line is likely to be a loss.