Bridal Times had the opportunity to speak to bridal shop owner Daniel Struck about his successful family business and how it has adapted over the years to the many changes in the bridal industry.
Daniel, this year the Hochzeitshaus Struck celebrated its 30th anniversary. What do you think has made your family business successful over so many years?
We are very proud to have been able to work in such a wonderful industry for such a long time. Above all, I am proud of my mother and my parents. My mother came up with the idea of selling wedding dresses out of nowhere in 1992 and my father supported the “crazy idea” at the time. Back then, my mother had designed 5 dresses herself and had them sewn by a seamstress in a small village in Poland. That was the start of “Brautmoden Struck”, it all started in a small terraced house in the “Party Basement”. As a result, my sister Daria and I grew up with bridal fashion. We simply inherited the passion for bridal fashion and customer service from our mother. Serving every customer with ideal service and making the impossible possible was our mother’s top priority, and that is still very important to us today. Even though I now have a wonderful team of 17 employees, each individual knows how important our philosophy is to us.
Gisela and Bernhard Struck
What role do you play in the company and how is the Hochzeitshaus Struck structured today?
In 2009, at the age of 21, I opened my own shop exclusively for men’s formal wear. In 2014, after 22 years of self-employment, my mother no longer felt like working 6-7 days a week and therefore retired. Since then I’ve been doing bridal fashion and men’s formal wear together. We have grown and expanded almost annually since then. I now have a shop floor of 800 square meters – 600 square meters of which is only for bridal fashion, 200 square meters of men’s formal wear and my own wedding ring studio in the shop. I’m in the shop almost every day and tend to work behind the scenes. Nevertheless, I also carry out sales consultations in the men’s area myself and am also happy to get involved in the advice given to brides in order to get closer to the customer and to find out what the bridal couples want. I have an incredibly great team of 17 employees here who simply share, live and internalize the “family business” and love for the bridal fashion industry. It’s now no problem for me to go on vacation for 2 or 3 weeks because I know that I can rely on my team. We harmonize wonderfully with each other and team evenings are legendary with us.
What makes your bridal shop unique and what will future brides find in the Hochzeitshaus Struck?
As already mentioned, we are a good family team. Brides who come to visit us immediately notice that everyone here enjoys their work and that’s the way it should be. We try to show our future bridal couples a lot through Instagram about our shop and keep them up to date. We have been working with the most well-known manufacturers in the industry right from the start, and I have personally developed a private, friendly relationship with many of them.
You have recently opened a new men’s department. Tell us more about it.
We have been selling men’s formal wear since 2009. We recently expanded our men’s department, that’s true. I just noticed that the gentlemen also really want to have a great shopping experience. The men’s groups receive a cold beer or soft drink and meanwhile the boys celebrate the appointments just like the brides. That’s always a lot of fun for our consultants.
Most of the time we see women modeling wedding dresses for social media, and it’s a nice change to see you modeling menswear. What made you decide to step in front of the camera for the first time?
In fact, it wasn’t my intention to play the groom’s model, my girls encouraged me since I am the only man amongst us. The idea to start actually came from our male customers. More and more men approached us and “complained” that we only ever show bridal fashion and we should present what our men’s department has to offer.
How has this generation of the family business used social media to connect with bridal couples, and how much has marketing changed since the company’s early days?
Due to the fact that I have been in the industry full-time for 13 years and am not the oldest hand in the industry at the age of 34, I have of course been able to observe a lot in recent years. In the early days, we advertised with newspaper ads . The topic of social media and especially Instagram is simply indispensable. I absolutely don’t see our business as a pioneer in this area, there are definitely shops that do this more professionally than we do. Nevertheless, we get a lot of positive feedback from our customers. Our first real reels that we shot really shot through the roof. We’ve had clicks from 200,000 to almost a million. We didn’t expect that.
Would you say that today’s social media marketing is also fun and enjoyable for your team?
Yes, our team definitely has a lot of fun and I think the fun shows in our stories and reels. Sometimes I need a nice reminder to post something, but it’s nice to keep our customers up to date.
What are other big changes Hochzeitshaus Struck has seen in the industry after being in business for many years?
In addition to the fashion trends, the shopping experience has changed significantly since the beginning. In the 90s it was great for brides to buy their wedding dress in my parents’ private house, a bottle of water and friendly service was enough.
Today that is unthinkable. We celebrate the dates with the bridal couples. A champagne, cool drinks, something to nibble on and a high fun factor are simply part of modern business premises.
We have to ask you, what is your current favorite wedding suit look?
In general, shades of green are extremely popular with our customers and are almost on par with shades of blue. In the men’s area we are currently experiencing an absolute run and we are happy about the excellent cooperation with Wilvorst. Luckily I took a big risk last fall (although we didn’t know if we’d have to close again in winter because of Corona) and made such a large pre-order that I haven’t made in 10 years. For this reason, we can currently serve almost all men from our own stock without any problems, since the manufacturers’ stocks are almost empty.
I’m more of the fancy suit lover for weddings. I really like the vintage looks, but I prefer the extravagant frock coat, classic tuxedo or dinner jacket. At my own wedding, which took place in Altenberg Cathedral with 150 guests, I also wore a dark, elegant frock coat made of Italian fabrics and then even changed to an ivory-colored dinner jacket with black lapels for the evening.
Finally, what advice can you, as a business owner, give to others?
Involve your team in the processes and try out new things, this is how you develop yourself.
On behalf of Bridal Times, we would like to thank Daniel Struck from Hochzeitshaus Struck for this interview.