The story of Harmont & Blaine, a “family story” made of love for the territory of its roots, the Gulf of Naples in Campania, is opening up a new chapter with challenges such as the stock market quotation planned for 2013. Harmont & Blaine (www.harmontblaine.it), a clothing company based in Caivano, is managed with intelligence and foresight by CEO Domenico Menniti. We asked him what have been the added values that have led to success and what are the company’s future goals.

Menniti, Harmont & Blaine is the story of perfect family management which has been successful. Is this what makes the difference and allows you to grow?

This was an added value in the past when the story of the company was at the beginning. These are times when no attention is paid to sacrifices because the objective is unique and shared. But when you achieve a modicum of success as has happened to us then it could become a constraint, so it is inevitable that you follow the logic of “contamination”. One of our goals was to be able to transform the logic of the extraordinary in the company into ordinary business capacity.

What does the brand identify?

Certainly, the dachshund, the icon of the shirt. The Harmont & Blaine brand was that of the shirt with the dachshund, but over time we have shown to our customers that we are credible and now one-third of our turnover comes from trousers, another third from knitwear and a final third from shirts.

How do you move in foreign markets?

Let me say at the outset that the so-called spot interventions on the foreign markets are very different from internationalisation.

In fashion, the most difficult markets are the Italian and French, so it is important to place yourself well. We ran well in Germany, France and the European countries when our revenues were modest, now we are going to the Arab countries and Mexico, and we have four stores in China. In 2011, the target is Iran.

In general, we always try to keep in mind the objective, which is to analyse the trends of consumers who change very quickly. This trend should be interpreted with the right timing: if you are too quick, this means that you have not understood the world.

What goals do you expect to achieve?

Over the past two years our company has had good growth rates: in 2009 it was 7%, and rose to double figures in 2010. In 2011 we expect +18%, in 2012 +35% and in 2013 we should reach 100 million euro in revenue, with an EBITDA of 22-23%.

What challenges do you expect?

The most important challenge we are proposing is the stock market quotation in 2013. It will be like playing in another league compared with where we are today. For this you need to equip not only the team but also the backstage.

To do this, we must continue a path that until now has been virtuous in terms of product and communication.

This is the only way to keep up with who I consider to be the only competitor at international level, Ralph Lauren.