Casual Male CEO Levin

Already a ‘big’ player domestically, Casual Male has its sights set on Europe. The retailer–which operates the Casual Male XL and Rochester Big & Tall chains here–has launched a website in the UK and is getting ready to roll them out in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. The multi-channel Canton, MA-based company has decided to take this route before mass opening stores on the continent. David Levin, Casual Male’s chief executive officer, spoke with GlobeSt.com about the company’s strategy in Europe and the sales climate the retail industry is facing right now.

GlobeSt.com: Why did you decide to start with an e-commerce presence in Europe instead of stores?

Levin: We have 500 stores in the US. We have one Rochester clothing store in London, and it’s been there for about eight years. It’s been very successful; it’s our second-highest volume store in the company. We are somewhat familiar with the landscape of retail and big and tall in the UK. As we did our homework and read some studies, we found there is a significant population of big and tall men across Europe and because of our strength on the e-commerce side, we thought it would be a natural for us to start gaining exposure by starting to sell on the internet first.