Special Guest

Childrenswear retailer, Du pareil au meme, exports its winning formula to the world’s retailing hotspots
George Spitzer - CEO of Du pareil au même

George Spitzer is CEO of Du pareil au même (or DPAM as it is often known) which currently operates more than 240 stores across 17 countries including Ireland. Having worked in the retail industry for just over twenty years, Spitzer has experienced both ends of the fashion market, from high end luxury to high street fashion. In 1995 he joined the LVMH group where he took over from Hubert de Givenchy himself, then set up LV Capital at the request of LVMH CEO, Bernard Arnault, before joining DPAM in 2002. “In fact, it was at a dinner party with friends that the CEO of the investment firm which owned DPAM invited me to conduct an audit of the brand”. Spitzer’s findings were concise: although the company had successfully preserved its core brand values of creativity, value for money and regular assortment renewal, it had not been efficient in reacting to the rise of new “family” concepts in the form of Zara and H&M, or to new competition from emerging brands such as Okaïdi, Orchestra and Sergent Major in France, and Adams in the UK.