Ecoalf, led by sustainability, targets €150 million annual revenues

A decade ago, sustainability in fashion meant a flimsy PR release about not being fast fashion. Now, a brand like Ecoalf can create a whole environmentally friendly eco-system and turn it into a proper business model.
 

Founded 15 years ago in Madrid, Ecoalf is predicting 25% growth in 2024, as it opens stores in several continents; and aiming at annual revenues breaching €150 in 2027.
 
The key reason for its success: highly loyal customers who crave a brand with real eco-credibility like Ecoalf, which sources fabrics from sea-waste collected by fisherman in the Mediterranean.

This year alone, Ecoalf has opened its first franchise store in Andorra, a 160-square-meter boutique with Pyrénées, the leading department store in that mountain principality.
 
“We are considering if it is a model that works for us. We are in the center of its capital and lots of people visit Andorra,” notes Javier Goyeneche, CEO and founder, in conversation in the brand’s Paris flagship in the Marais. An estimated 10.2 million tourists visit the country annually.
 
In Japan, Ecoalf recently opened another boutique in Shinjuku, its fourth shop-in-shop in Japan. In Spain, it will add another six in the next two months including Zaragoza, Barcelona, San Sebastian and Bilbao.
 
Ecoalf is also on the move in the USA. It has inked a partnership with a major real estate operator, and made an offer for a 2,800 square-feet space in Beverly Drive, where it will also create a new American HQ in LA.
 
Traditionally, Ecoalf has grown by wholesale accounts. It boasts 1,300 multi-brand doors worldwide (including 380 in Spain), accounting for 65% of its annual turnover, with a further 35% coming from retail and 10% online.
 
“But our goal is 40/40/20. Wholesale/Retail/Online. That’s our idea,” beams Goyeneche, who looks more like a cousin of Antonio Banderas, than an environmental exec.
 
Internationally, growth is strong worldwide, except for in Germany, currently the weakest of the larger European economies, where a few clients even closed stores.
 
The brand’s flagship environmental project, Upcycling the Oceans, is an international initiative born in Spain that has also been developed in Thailand, Greece, Italy and France.
 
Ecoalf has developed some 600 new generation recycled fabrics, recycling over 294 million plastic bottles, along with tons of discarded fishing nets, used tires, post-industrial cotton and wool. In the process, saving over 27 billion liters of water and 6,300 tons of CO2 in 2023.
 
“We grow slowly, but our clients are very faithful. They have a sense of what we do, and they like our philosophy. Another good thing is that we sell 50/50, men and women,” he beams.
 
In Spain, where Ecoalf have 48 shop-in-shops with retail giant El Corte Ingles, they have that split too. “Our biggest turnover is in women’s in El Corte Ingles in Bilbao, while for men’s it is Madrid Castellana. That means we have the possibility to grow in both sectors,” he smiles.
 
Historically, Ecoalf has invested heavily in recycled fabrics. Though now they are more focused on the positive impacts from regenerative cotton, working with two groups of local farmers in India and Egypt, to restore rural areas, improving soil and planting more trees. “Making the area green so it rains more. Last year, we started with the first yarns from Ahmedabad in India, and they were pretty good. This is a long-term project,” the CEO underlines in a tour of the store.
 
The brand’s recycled nylon has a remarkably silk finish in coolly understated windcheaters and raingear, as does a fresh delivery of Ecoalf Sports activewear. While regenerative cotton summer looks stood out for their great color palette of sea blue and washed out gray.
 
Even the walls play their part in Ecoalf’s mission. Stores have walls constructed of the leftovers of T-Shirts converted into fiber, then blended into plaster for a dappled ecru finish. Making Ecoalf seem like a very sure bet to make its commitment to NetZero Emissions by 2030.
 
Like we said, the very opposite of a PR job.