Voo Store CEO talks strategic overhaul: Prioritising independent brands over luxury labels

Under Akcay's leadership, the fashion retailer, known beyond Germany's borders, will once again focus on its former strength: offering young brands and designer collections that cannot be found everywhere. To this end, the new boss is also cutting budgets for the big fashion houses.

Akcay reveals exactly what his strategy looks like an interview with FashionUnited.

You took over the position from founder Yasin Müjdeci at the beginning of the year. Has this also changed the ownership structure?

Not yet, the ownership structure will change in April. It’s not a major upheaval; previously, Yasin and his brother each held 50 percent. In April, there will be re-distribution of the shares between them, and within the management. We are waiting for 2025 financials to be settled.

So Müjdeci isn't just giving up his role?

He wanted to be completely out as he is planning to move to Paris – his wife is the commercial director for Jean-Paul Gaultier and they’re expecting a baby soon. After 15 years, Yasin felt exhausted and needed a change. However, Voo is still his "baby."

Him and his brother, Kaan, the new majority owner, called me back because he wanted the store in the hands of people he knows and trusts. I had already been responsible for day-to-day operations and financials at Voo for many years.

When you were appointed, you said that you would have to take certain measures to restore financial stability and profitability. What exactly does that mean?

The main focus is restructuring old debts, primarily with the buying platform Sport 2000 and their backing bank, DZ Bank. They haven't been friendly regarding payment plans, but we are currently working on a solution. Voo is a small independent store; with the brands we work with, we always find solutions, even if we are late. It’s the bank that has been pushing us.

Another factor was the sneaker business, which was mainly focused on the US. Since the introduction of new tariffs, this market collapsed, burdening us with planned inventory and impacting cash flow. With the internal ownership change and new investment, the outlook is now very optimistic.

How will budget allocation change to fix past issues?

In companies like this, the finance department is often disregarded. I’ve brought in a financial manager, Nikolas Katz – formerly a financial controller at Zalando – , to ensure everything runs more smoothly and efficiently. As an independent retailer, we depend on independent brands; we don’t want them waiting months for payments while they already struggling with larger partners.

We want to go back to how Voo was ten years ago: smaller, independent brands, focused on curiosity. We want to offer brands people don't see elsewhere in Berlin – upcoming brands we trust in terms of branding and quality.

That fits, in a way, with the current social media trend of looking back at the aesthetic of 2016.

Voo always had those independent brands. Around 2016, the list of high-end partners kept growing, but that isn't our reality anymore. We will keep most of those partners, but we’ve drastically lowered their budgets because they haven't performed at the levels that justified their minimum buy requirements. I don’t want to allocate half my budget to brands that aren't performing.

How did you handle the brands that were no longer performing but still demanding high investment?

January was a month of very rough discussions. Historically, there’s been a fear among independent retailers that if you don't meet a luxury brand’s minimum buy requirements, you’ll lose them entirely. But the reality of the current market – where purchasing power has dropped and prices have inflated – means we can no longer let these brands dictate our survival.

We were very transparent with them. We basically said: "I can only buy 50 to 60 percent of what we used to, but we’d love to keep working together." We had to be firm because I refuse to allocate half of my budget to a list of brands that aren't performing as well as before. And they were mainly understanding.

We will keep aspirational pieces for store curation, but a customer should also be able to find a cool, accessible knit or jean for 200 to 300 euro.

What is the balance in the buying budget now?

We are spending around 25 to 30 percent on luxury brands. The remainder goes to up-and-coming or more accessible brands like Stüssy, Carhartt, Our Legacy, or Sunflower. We realized that with accessible brands, we often reach a 60 percent sell-through in one month, meaning we were losing sales because we were too busy spending on luxury brands and couldn't restock. We are now reallocating that budget internally.

Are there major team changes?

Our store manager just left, but a new one starts in March. The core team in the office – buying, merchandising, e-comm, marketing – are people we hired years ago.

However, we are simplifying the workflow. We are ditching a complex ERP system [Editor's note: Enterprise Resource Planning system: software solution for core business processes] implemented in 2022, which created too much manual work, and switching to a simpler warehouse management system. This allows the team to focus more on the physical store rather than pushing online as much as possible.

Creative director Benjamin Patch left the company last year. What is the situation regarding his successor?

Benjamin’s stint with Voo lasted only a couple months; it was very short. Traditionally, the creative director at Voo was also the head of buying, a role that is crucial for storytelling. You need someone who can translate that vision into what we show our customers. For many years, Herbert Hoffmann and later Thibaud Guyonnet significantly shaped Voo's identity.

Currently, the creative direction is in a transitional phase. For this season, Jesse Hudnutt, who is based in New York and worked with Tres Bien for many years, has been a buying advisor. For the next few months, our focus remains on the internal restructuring and financial consolidation. Once this foundation is in place, we will return to the creative aspects.

What is the plan for the other segments alongside the store - Voo Archive, Deli, and Voo Space?

All our concepts will remain in place. For the Archive, we will continue hosting guest archive stores. The Deli stays the same, though we want to update the interior; it’s the "cozy corner" that keeps people in the store. The major change is Voo Space. Previously, it worked on a rent-based model, which felt non-collaborative. We are changing that to a revenue-share method, hosting small independent brands we love. It keeps the space alive and functioning. We also have a monthly book club and plan small exhibitions with independent artists.

How did 2025 look in terms of revenue?

The second half of 2024 and 2025 were negative. The profits from 2021 to 2023 balanced it out, but I was surprised by the situation when I returned. We identified two major issues: too many resources spent on online business and misallocation of the brand budget.

While the physical store has been steady, the online business went down by 30 to 35 percent over the last 1.5 years. Overall revenue in 2025 dropped by 15 percent. Online used to be 60-65 percent of our business; now it’s 45-50 percent. Our aim is not to push online back to 60 percent, but to push the physical store revenue to 60-65 percent.