Saks Potts announces new CEO/co-owner, Laigaard joins from Ganni

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 27, 2022

Danish contemporary brand Saks Potts has announced the appointment of its first CEO as part of its plan to expand internationally. New CEO and co-owner Josefine Laigaard joins on 1 May, with the 33-year-old having “more than 12 years of extensive industry experience”.

Founders Cathrine Saks and Barbara Potts said that “her strong commercial understanding and expertise within product and strategy” make them confident that “together [we] will be able to scale our business internationally”.

The company didn’t give details of her ownership stake but did say that its international focus will be built particularly around growing the brand’s footprint in the UK, US and Asia.

Laigaard moves directly from her role as Head of Business Development at Ganni, where she has been reporting directly to CEO Andrea Baldo. 

At that label, she’s been responsible for driving the successful company strategy and go-to-market plans, as well as projects such as entries in China via TMall and the launch of e-commerce in South Korea. She also led the launch of the secondhand offering that Ganni recently unveiled for Scandinavia and the UK.

Before Ganni, she was a management consultant at EY Parthenon, working on strategy and M&A. Plus she’s an experienced fashion designer “and has worked with sustainable fashion design, represented at prominent retailers like Harrods, Colette and Dover Street Market, among others”.

Saks Potts is based in Copenhagen. Founded in 2014, it was “repositioned” last year “to sophisticate the brand even further”. 

The founders said they “felt a need to enhance our brand values even more to resonate with our community of strong, modern women. We’ve felt a change in us and in society, which we needed to respond to” post-pandemic.

But they insisted that the label remains a “dressy casual brand, with a whimsical twist and practical details – even more than ever actually, but we now also focus even more on quality and sustainability of our designs in terms craftsmanship and materials”.

The label will take part in both Paris Fashion Week in June and Copenhagen Fashion Week in August.