Sakowitz, Incorporated and S.I. Investments

Mr. Sakowitz was promoted to Executive President in 1965;increasing sales from $38 million to $140 million and quadrupling the profits during the period as President of Sakowitz, Inc. 1975-1985.

Initiating new in-store marketing concepts: Initiating new in-store concepts of European designer ready-to-wear boutiques of America. Utilizing a European apprenticeship experience garnered from Galleries Lafayette, he collaborated with French couture designers, who were both unfamiliar with ready-to-wear in general as well as the U.S. market in particular. In a series of personal meetings, convincing the first “grand couturier” member of the Chambre Syndicale to make standardized fit, graded and patterned for the U.S. market sizes to be launched for entry into the U.S. at Sakowitz in Houston, Texas – a “first” in fashion and apparel marketing in America; and thus brought Andre Courreges, Jackie Kennedy´s favorite French designer, to the Sakowitz stores to launch his first ready-to-wear boutique in America in 1967. The boutique was successful from its opening day, and the concept of an in-store replicated French boutique, recreated exactly as its Paris store architectural facade, was later emulated by many competitors. This began the series of what was to become the“boutique/Europeanization of America” in many other retail stores subsequently-

Introducing a number of other couture and high-fashion European designers to the United States: After Courreges, Mr. Sakowitz personally negotiated the first distribution agreements for the first American Yves St. Laurent Rive Gauche (“YSL”)boutiques, with its’ owner Richard Solomon to launch in America, and for exclusivity for Texas for seven years. Other such negotiations and first introductions launchings in America were with Ermenegildo Zegna, Kenzo, Fendi, Fiorucci and Jean Muir, to name but a few most notable. This gave the company a market niche and label exclusivity it (and most others) had previously lacked, since it's competitor, Neiman Marcus, controlled all of the top U.S. women's designer labels in their Texas cities. For innovations with French Ready-to Wear, in 1972 he received the Epingle D'Or (“Golden Needle”) award from the French Fashion Federation.

Initiating annual theme-oriented festivals: Initiating annual theme-oriented Festivals in 1964, including international cultural and commercial merchandising concepts sparking events with community-wide participation for trans-industry corporate visibility, that became part of the basis for the now world-recognized Houston International Arts Festival. Educational programs were coordinated with the public and private schools throughout the city to organize for organizing student attendance. Themes such as Festival of Fantasy, Festival of the Renaissance and Festival of Great Religious Cultures, among others, were produced from 1964 until 1984. These festivals required Government and corporate negotiations at the highest levels, convincing Ministries and Corporate executives to invest in joint promotional ventures with the Sakowitz Company. That they continued and grew for over fourteen Festivals, with participation of numerous countries and many Fortune Five Hundred companies, is an indication of their acceptance and success.

Negotiating manufacturing and export programs: Negotiating manufacturing and export programs with European and Far Eastern countries for these events, and for these commercial and cultural successes, which led to personal decorations/knighthoods by President Giscard D´Estaing, Republic of France, as Chevalier de l´Ordre National du Merite in 1976; and subsequent decoration from Premier Craxi, Republic of Italy, with the honor of the Cavaliere dell Ordine Al Merito, in 1984.

Store Planning and Design: Planning and supervising over one million square feet of innovative fashion specialty store design, layout, décor and display, construction and merchandising;, receiving the National Association of Display Industry (NADI) Outstanding Achievement Award for Retail Management in 1976, and appointed to the NADI Hall of Fame in 1984.

Product Development: Creating a product development process, and later a separate division, for private label merchandise in the late 1970´s, in fashion apparel, basics, cosmetics and fragrance, accessories and gifts;, supervising piece goods(fabrics) and pattern system selection; ultimately made into a separate corporate (profit center) division. Sourcing was organized from domestic as well as Italian , English, Japanese, Philippine, Hong Kong and other Chinese facilities. Developed and launched a men´s fragrance, “Rampage”, as a corporate men´s fashion signature, and women’s fragrance, “NightBreeze”.

Fine and Rare Wine Auctions and Development: Initiating the concept of fine and rare wine departments and corresponding auctions (conducted at Sakowitz by Michael Broadbent of Christies, London); innovating one of the first in-department-store upscale gourmet and specialty foods and wine education classes and store departments, with world-publicized rare wine auctions for over eighteen years.

Restaurant operations and outside catering: Developing in-store restaurant operations and an outside catering business to a regionally-recognized and awarded status, creating products that were private-labeled from the Sky Terrace and Old Colony recipes and menus sold at retail.

World-wide media recognized Catalogues: Building a substantial catalogue and direct mail order business, converting stores-sales seasonal mailers into a stand-alone year-round business, operationally separately from the stores. This created and developed a world-wide-media-recognized mail-order catalogue business, featuring the Christmas Catalogue with “Ultimate Gifts”. These were featured annually on Television by NBC’s popular Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, and CBS’s The Today Show, as well as in numerous periodicals from Time Magazine to Der Stern, newspapers and in other international publications. The catalogues also served to encourage vendors and suppliers to offer new products and exclusivities first to Sakowitz on a day-to-day basis for better profitability and market differentiation.

Commercial fashion magazine: Conceiving, developing and publishing the first modern-day commercial fashion magazine for a retail store, “The Magazine”, highlighting fashion trends, lifestyles, and product information through use of custom European fashion-runway photography and own text directly following the Shows as they occurred.

Fashion Trend Analysis System: Inventing a fashion trend analysis for Buyers and Merchandisers to better structure the classifications of vendors and merchandising timing, increasing cross-communications between internal store merchants. The Innovational, Directional, and Acceptational (“IDA”) system outline was subsequently published in industry media as a marketing innovation for consideration by others.

Restructure the company: Creating alternatives for a family-owned privately held retail enterprise with limited access to capital to survive. Given the competitive requirements to either expand or expire in the face of national and international encroaching competition, vendor pressure for greater purchases to maintain lines and exclusivities, high interest rate, and ever-increasing minimum wage scale hikes, the challenge was to maintain profits while convincing real estate developers, bankers and vendors that expansion and survival of the Sakowitz company was in everyone´s best interest. Mr. Sakowitz was successful in doing so until the Southwestern home-based economy unexpectedly and devastatingly reversed in the mid-80´s oil market collapse. With consumer confidence destroyed in a depressed regional economy, sales revenues diminished, and no longer supported these previous commitments. In the face of calls by its bank consortium (60% of whom faced their own credit call problems from the U.S.Office of the Controller of the Currency. In 1985, Sakowitz was forced to seek protection and reorganize. For twenty-nine months Mr. Sakowitz worked with attorneys, accountants, vendors, bankers, creditors and creditor´s committees, employees and customers to successfully restructure the company and downsize for efficiency and debt repayment. Managing a turnaround by personally leading the search for and finding new investors to assist the company in emerging from the reorganization. By crafting a plan with Chemical Bank for merging Sakowitz with the Bonwit-Teller and Garfinckels store chains during their offered “de-accessioning” by Allied-Federated Stores, Inc., the offer reached the final round of negotiations, only to be “pre-empted” at the last moment at an “overbid price” by the Australian firm of L. J. Hooker. Mr. Sakowitz contacted them to discuss this plan, and subsequently succeeded in creating a new company to help Sakowitz emerge with a joint consensual creditor plan. The successful turnaround of the remaining Sakowitz stores was halted when in 1990 Sakowitz’ the then-two and one-half billion- dollar Sakowitz Australian partner, L.J. Hooker, was itself forced into reorganization. While preventing Sakowitz from being part of a mandatory inclusion in the reorganization, Mr. Sakowitz found he could not separate and stand alone under the “parent cloud” to return to profitability. Given only ninety days by the Courts to arrange for the repurchase of his former company, financing was not timely forthcoming in spite of all efforts. The parent/partner, L.J. Hooker, could no longer sustain its’ world-wide operations, and chose was forced to liquidate all assets. All Executives were released, and Sakowitz Inc. was liquidated by Hooker's overseers, (along with Bonwit Teller and B. Altman in New York).  

“Robert Sakowitz and his Fraying Empire”
Compliments of Texas Monthly
PDF

“Behind The Seams”
Paper City Magazine
January 2000 by Carrie Cloud
PDF

“Fresh Brew Group USA”
Houston Business Journal
August 2000 by Walker C. Wooding Jr.
PDF

“Suit Firm Tailored after Dell Model”
Houston Chronicle (Business Section)
October 13, 1999 by Greg Hassell
PDF Download | Read on-line
“Coffee gives entrepreneur a fresh start”
Houston Chronicle
November 4, 2011 by David Kaplan

“Fresh Brew Group evolved from Outer Continental Shelf to Vending Operations and Coffee Roasting”
Vending Times
October 2006 by Emily Jed

“International Best-Dressed List for 2004” (inclusion)
Vanity Fair
April 2004

“Follow-up File: Robert Sakowitz”
Dallas Morning News
September 14, 2003

“Clean Fuels, Inc. Moves Ahad on Worldscale MTBE Project”
Octane Week
August 30, 1993

“Houston’s Best-Dressed Men” (inclusion)
Houston Metropolitan Magazine
April 1991

“Robert Sakowitz” (cover feature)
Beretta & Company Retail Magazine
Spring 1984

“Merchant Prince and More”
Electricity
October 1984

“Sakowitz, J. Magnin in joint purchasing deal”
Houston Chronicle
June 7, 1983

“Robert Sakowitz: The Man Behind the Name”
Houston City Magazine
August 1983

“The Merchant Prince”
Southwest Airline Magazine
October 1981

“The Merchant of Texas”
Panam Clipper Magazine
January 1980

“Small Business Seeks Mobilization on Conference Recommendations”
Washington Report
March 17, 1980

“Robert Sakowitz on Italian Merchandising”
GiftItalia: A Newsletter published by the Italian Trade Commission, Vol. 1, Issue 2

“Newsmakers: Robert Sakowitz, The Inner Circle”
Men’s Wear Magazine

“Seven major forces drove retailers from downtown”
Houston Business Journal

“Houston 1999: These Famous Houstonians – and Thirty Others – Predict Our Future”
Houston City Magazine
April 1979

Appearances

“CNN Newsmaker Sunday”, Featured Guest
December 17, 1989

“Houston Chapter of Texas Society of CPAs”, Guest Guest
January 20, 1988

“Harvard Club Annual Spring Dinner”, Guest Guest
May 19, 1988

“University of Texas at Arlington”
Prospects for the Texas Economy, guest speaker on Retail Trade
February 9, 1984

Authored Articles & Papers

Letter to the Editor
Houston Business Journal
March 16-22, 2001

“How Will We Know When The Texas Economic Slump Has Ended?” Guest Columnist
Guest Columnist, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
May 27, 1988

“The Quality of Being Special”
Enterprise, the Magazine of the Young President’s Organization
May/June 1982

“Investing in a New Wardrobe”
Texas Business
August 1982

“Successful Catalog Marketing from the President’s View”
Direct Marketing
January 1981