In the second part of the history of Tiger of Sweden, we pick up where we left the last time; with the death of Marcus Schwartzman. His son Robert Schwartzman had been running the company for a couple of years after his father’s death. This was the start of a dark time in the company’s history.
In the beginning of the sixties the competition started to get tougher. Companies from countries like Finland and Portugal were able to compete with lower prices.
This was the start of the major textile crisis in Sweden. Six years after the death of his father, Robert perished himself. Late at night, on the way home from a client meeting, he experienced a car accident that would take his life.
The tragic event caused concern for the future of Tiger, and was start of the turbulent time that lay ahead. In 1968 the textile crises climaxed. During the crisis 70 000 people lost their jobs in Swedish textile industry. But that was not the only thing that contributed to the decline. The 68-generation didn’t wear suits. As a part of the liberation from their parent’s generation, jeans, t-shirts and clogs became a fashion statement.
In order to save jobs, the Swedish government started buying up the textile companies. In the mid sixties the government bought Tiger. The same thing happened to Tiger’s main competitor at the time, Oscar Jacobsson. In order to keep them from competing with each other, each company got a different objective. Tiger had to focus on export (only allowed to sell to a couple of stores in Sweden). Oscar Jacobsson on the other hand had to focus on the Swedish market alone. During the seventies Tiger was therefore forbidden to market itself in Sweden.
Instead Tiger became a prestigious supplier of suits in the UK (for instance to Marks and Spencer) and in America. A office was set up in the Empire State Building in New York. Tiger got a reputation for quality garments. One in particular. Tiger manufactured a model in gabardine from the renowned producer Bleiche in Switzerland. Gabardine was an extremely difficult material to make suits in. And few had the ability. Tiger therefore sold 70 000 gabardine suits a year on the US market alone.
At the end of the seventies the public demand for gabardine declined, and sales went down. In 1987 the New York office was finally closed.
In 1983 the CEO and Head of production at the time bought the company from the government. They started market the brand once again and lay the foundation of what was about to happen later on.
In the eighties the suit was once again latest fashion. The Yuppie era had begun. Quality was now on demand and Tiger got once again a boost. In 1989 a government company once again bought Tiger. A series of bankruptcies followed. But in the fall of 1992 a young group of people at Tiger had a vision. With a new mantra they developed a new collection that would be show cased the following spring. It turned out to be the start of the Tiger we know today…
In the third and final chapter we get to follow what led to the success story Tiger is today.
