Enzo Lorenzo, the italian.

Knitwear expert and Italy fan Jürgen Baur, son of the owner of the knitwear factory founded in 1928 in Metzingen, travels to Bella Italia for the first time in the middle of the seventies. His objective: the production of men’s sweaters. With a positive effect for the parental company: from this point in time the collections always include Italian inspired items that turn into top sellers throughout. Baur creates the name “Enzo Lorenzo” in 1983 in order to push the sale of high quality sweaters made in Italy. This achieved 98 % popularity among those asked during a prior survey carried out by the Wickert Institute. The sales chart shows a sharp upward turn after its launch; sales double many a time over the following years.

In the middle of the eighties the young knitwear label sponsors Patrick Sommer, a formula 3 and Porsche Cup driver. The end of the eighties marks the beginning of the “Enzo Lorenzo around the World” advertising campaign. Directed by the top photographer Harrlan Ross-Feltus, production teams travel to locations such as Paris, London and New York. In the years that follow the Italian bar at Enzo’s fair stand at the Men’s Fashion Week in Cologne mutates into a hip meeting place of the clothing scene.

The nineties are all about cross marketing with Porsche in nearby Stuttgart. For this reason there are raffles at the Cologne fair for weekends at a castle hotel and test drives including a
personal instructor. At the end of the nineties Enzo Lorenzo is the cutting-edge of the Italian inspired scene and initiates the “Prima Italia” campaign with Saeco, Parmigiano Reggiano and Asti Cinzano as cooperation partners; the sales promotion campaign is a sweeping success with the end customers.

In 2000 Enzo Lorenzo participates at the International Fashion Fair in Cologne for the 70th time. The first polo shirts and swearshirts appear in the collection, but the emphasis remains on knitwear. Jürgen Baur, the Enzo Lorenzo creator, retires at the beginning of 2008, but carefully plans his succession prior to this. On 1 January 2009 his brand changes to Enzo Lorenzo Fashion GmbH with Dirk Bodem as shareholder and managing director. He worked for famous labels prior to this; Lale, his wife, brings along know-how from many years of activities in the procurement of goods and quality assurance. Dirk Bodem takes on the majority of the sales team, intensifies area safeguarding, streamlines the number of exporting countries and in doing so follows up the existing company motto “selected premium quality and absolute customer loyalty“. Dirk Bodem’s design team gathers inspiration from traditional examples and Italian lifestyle and livens up the brand essence in the spirit of the times. Unfortunately, Enzo Lorenzo’s 25th anniversary goes completely under in the hectic brand takeover activities.

At the end of 2008 the company moves to new premises in Reutlingen and relocates logistics to Kirchheim.

The models are completely revised at the beginning of 2009. Bodem confronts the rising desire for a transparent, ecologically correct visible trade balance with “biocash” as a product innovation. He takes on further sales representatives, starts up a B2B web shop in August 2009 and expands the range even more with shirts, polo shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and accessories. In addition he consistently concentrates production on European locations.  

In 2010 Enzo Lorenzo is operating more self-confidently than ever and introduces functional outdoor jackets and vests that demonstrate the further path to full-range supplier and to the re-interpreted lifestyle brand.
 
In January 2011 the South of France, Denmark, Spain and the Czech Republic are added as further export territories; Enzo Lorenzo is therefore represented in more than 11 countries.