For Ecco' Owners, It's Time To Move On -- After Three Makeovers, Couple Decides To Sell

In the beginning, Ecco' stores sold their own lines of matching sweaters, skirts and pants. And all was good, until the Gap began competing with its own matching outfits.

Then Ecco' added a large collection of Liz Claiborne fashions and accessories. And that was good, until Claiborne decided to open her own stores.

Ecco' remade itself and began selling novelty sweaters, until that concept waned. And then the small Bellevue-based chain began stocking major fashion brands such as Eileen Fisher before Fisher decided to open boutiques in Redmond Town Center and downtown Seattle.

If there is a season for everything, now is the time for co-owners Dan and Georgina Hogan to sell. Rather than reinvent their stores one more time, they've decided to put their five-store chain on the market for $1 million. Hogan said he plans to work as a retail consultant.

"At some point, you have to say, `I have had fun doing it, but I think I'll help other people do it,' " said Hogan, who is not bowing out silently.

In the wake of New York designer Fisher's announcement that she was opening two Seattle-area stores, Hogan ran newspaper ads last month saying he was slashing prices on her clothes by 20 percent every day.

"As a local store owner, I am tired of building a designer's business only to have her open retail stores," Hogan wrote in his ad.

In many ways, Hogan's problem is a reflection of the struggles facing independent store owners in today's world of big department stores and proliferating national brands.

"The (national) brands are going to force (local) people to get really niche-oriented," said Kathy Schanno, marketing director for The Retail Group, a Seattle-based design and retail consulting company.

To get repeat customers, local operators will have to offer the personal service and fashions that department stores aren't providing, she said.

For Hogan, a former merchandising executive with The Bon Marche and Bullock's in California, three makeovers of Ecco' in 14 years was enough. Not only did he have to acquaint customers with the new store concepts, he had to repaint and put new fixtures in his outlets and get bank loans to pay for the changes.

"If you don't change in retail, you die," he said.

But running the stores takes energy and time.

"My wife and I have not taken more than a week off at a time in the last 14 years," he said.

A cancer scare for Georgina this spring made the couple want to spend more time with each other, Hogan said. The tumor was benign.

Hogan, 46, said his five stores are profitable, earning close to $175,000 in pretax profit on $2.5 million in sales last year.

He said several of his 35 employees have expressed interest in buying one or more of the stores at Rainier Square in downtown Seattle, University Village in North Seattle, Bellevue Square, Old Bellevue at Main Street and 102nd Avenue Southeast, and the Ecco' Outlet store at Northeast 55th Street and 35th Avenue Northeast in Seattle.

He said he'll sell the leases and tenant improvements such as flooring, ceiling and walls for $80,000 to $145,000, depending on store location. The outlet's sales tag is $35,000.

Hogan said he'd consider selling the store's name - Ecco' means "Here it is" in Italian - if someone buys all five stores.

Merchandise, display cases, other fixtures and a warehouse-distribution center would bring the total price to $1 million.

"If we can't sell, we'll probably liquidate," he said. But he is convinced that someone with a love of retailing and fashion can succeed.

"Take a point of view," he said. "Do the best in certain vendors or looks, better than the department stores can do. Have lots of little bits of new merchandise all the time.

"Find the small manufacturers, help them get started, though my wife says never get too big with one vendor. And test constantly for new trends, colors and fabrics, all the nuances of the fashion industry."

Lee Moriwaki's phone message number is 206-464-2320. His e-mail address is: lmoriwaki@seattletimes.com