BIRKENSTOCK bolsters APAC footprint with new Greater China GM role

BIRKENSTOCK has named Tiffany Wu (pictured) as managing director for Greater China, effective from 1 November 2023.  

In this newly created position, Wu will lead the Greater China business area, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, driving brand equity and sales in the region. She reports to Klaus Baumann, chief sales officer of the BIRKENSTOCK Group. 

With the new appointment, the Germany-based brand aims to further strengthen the company's expanding footprint in the most dynamic region in Asia Pacific with the largest untapped white space potential for the company, alongside India and Japan.  

This comes along with BIRKENSTOCK’s rapidly growing eCommerce business in China, which will be supplemented by a strong owned retail presence and a healthy wholesale business with selected local partners. 

Wu joins the firm with over 18 years of premium fashion and luxury end-to-end omni-channel expertise in China and acute brand sense. Wu is also experienced in driving brands' commercial strategy, omni channel expansion, brand building and storytelling through China's ever-changing digital landscape along with a strong marketing and PR foundation. 

After living in New York, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and China, Wu started her career at the global PR agency Ogilvy. After three years with the global PR firm, in 2009 she co-founded a leather goods designer brand called Heirloom and sold it ten years later, when the brand was present in 11 countries. 

From 2019 onwards, Tiffany Wu led the Fung Retailing-Asia Retail Company (ARC), which assisted foreign companies in the Chinese market. In 2021, she took on the role of managing the Greater China region (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau) for Blue Nile, a global online diamond sales company. 

Oliver Reichert, director of Birkenstock Holding and CEO of the BIRKENSTOCK Group, said: "Greater China is the strongest growth driver for us in the APMA region alongside India and Japan. Unlike many other brands, we haven't faced consumer headwinds in the last months, quite the opposite. And in view of the latest economic outlook, we expect this positive trend to continue or accelerate. This is supported by the business in our own digital channels which has developed extremely positively in China this year.” 

Wu said: "BIRKENSTOCK's growth potential is enormous in this market[…]As we ramp up our production capacity, we will unlock the large growth potential of China and the whole APMA region, which has generated significant latent demand that we have been unable to fulfil in recent years given more limited supply. Our targeted growth strategies will build upon our growing popularity in the region's underdeveloped markets, including China, where our brand is nascent." 

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