Renowned footballer, and former Sweden captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s clothing label A-Z has reportedly announced for closure, after operating for two years, due to the losses of £ 18 million.
The former Manchester United striker, who now plays in the US for LA Galaxy, launched his own apparel brand two years back in association with Varner Group with the name referring to the star player’s journey from ‘Amateur to Zlatan.’
Reportedly, the company said that they invested heavily in commercialising their brand and expected to cover up the margin with sales over the years. Last year, the retailer agreed that it suffered higher than expected losses because of the marketing of the brand.
In a media statement issued, Varner Group affirmed that even though the growth in sales was very solid, the athleisure brand’s efforts were too costly. “We knew we would not fetch profit from the beginning but the losses were higher than expected,” the company said.
Notably, both Varner Group and Zlatan Ibrahimovic ended their respective co-operation in the company. The brand is still live but on the majority of menswear, kids-wear apparel, the European sportswear brand is offering 50 per cent discount.
The brand was initially offering merchandises online but after not meeting the sales goals, Norwegian Varner Group decided to take the brand in other stores to boost sales and compensate for the loss at the end of last year. However, even this move wasn’t enough to derail the losses.
Markedly, this is not the first collaboration with the star footballer that has gone wrong. Previously, an app called ‘Zlatan Unplugged’ which was discontinued after registering losses of SEK 300 million.
