Daniel Novais de Almeida decided to relaunch his ready-to-wear business, leaving the Ilann Five franchise and creating Quartier Général. He explains why.
“7 years ago, when I started here, rue Brauhauban in Tarbes, I needed a little support, the Ilann Five franchise allowed me to cut my teeth,” summarizes Daniel Novais de Almeida, “ but the Covid was fatal to the brand, the stores closed one after the other, in the end, I was the last one still alive So, as I reached the end of the contract, by mutual agreement with Ilann. Five, we stopped our collaboration, it no longer made sense.” But for the young entrepreneur, there is no question of lowering the curtain. “Thanks to Ilann Five, I was able to form, with Stéphanie Pereira, a sort of “community” around the store, and I decided to relaunch it, by changing the sign. We named it “Quartier Général “, because for many of our customers, often young, it’s a meeting point, they meet there, come see us… It’s a bit of an HQ, and that’s the idea that I makes me feel like a city center business, with proximity and human values. Here, the customer is not a number.”
Develop a brand
Another advantage of flying solo is that Daniel and Stéphanie have regained their freedom of action. “Yes, I prefer to buy directly from factories, in Spain, Portugal or Italy. Each country has its specialties, if I may say so, jeans, cotton, linen… Which allows me to have quality at a more than reasonable price. And with the contacts I have created, I am starting to develop my brand, QG, we have caps, t-shirts that I have made, to start with.” And especially other brands, carefully selected. “Yes, like Chabrand, Von Dutch, Rock’n Free, Comme Des Loups. I have customers who come from Pau, just for our products, you can only find them here.” And it comes even from further afield, Daniel is always on the lookout to make his store prosper. “We welcomed Bengous for the Tarbes festivities and we dressed him, as well as the two DJs, he loved it, he shared us on his social networks.” In short, an even trendier boutique, in every sense of the word, since it also offers a dedicated online sales website!
