Scaling efficiently: How IOS Clothing grew revenue 6x with the same team size

In 2020, brothers Maximilian and Louis Höpfner transformed a 70-year-old traditional company into a digital D2C brand. But with success came a reality check: their old, B2B-driven ERP system could no longer handle hundreds of small orders per day. With Xentral and its onboarding partner, founderlab (Commerce OS), IOS Clothing increased its revenue sixfold without expanding the team.

Tradition meets modernity: When menswear becomes an e-commerce success 

Driven by a passion for menswear and a high bar for quality, Helmut Bleeke founded the tie factory MAICA in 1952 in Leese, near Nienburg. Over the decades, the small workshop grew into a successful family business with its own clothing line, retail network, factory outlet, and a name that's firmly rooted in Lower Saxony.

More than 70 years later, the third generation is carrying the spirit of this heritage brand onto a completely new playing field. And they did it in 2020, a year when many companies were forced to scale back. During the pandemic, brothers Maximilian and Louis Höpfner went on the offensive and moved the B2B-driven family business into the digital D2C world.

They built IOS Clothing, an e-commerce brand that promises the perfect fit and maximum comfort. The goal: rethink modern menswear as functional, comfortable, and uncompromisingly stylish. Success came quickly. But the previously B2B-experienced team suddenly had to handle hundreds of small D2C orders per day, using an ERP system that wasn't built for the pace of online retail.

Growing pains, and no Shopify integration in sight 

Every order in e-commerce is a reason to celebrate. But at IOS Clothing, each new order added pressure to the old inventory management system, which ran reliably but was designed for large B2B orders. At first, the team handled D2C orders manually, entering DPD shipping addresses by hand.

"When we had three to five D2C orders a day, that still worked," the CEO says. As success grew and daily order volume climbed to 100 or 200, the team quickly hit its breaking point. "We started out doing a million euros in revenue and typing like crazy," Maximilian recalls. Four full-time employees were doing nothing but data entry.

New hires brought short-term relief, but what the team really needed was a Shopify integration. The problem: "Our old system's provider simply didn't have a solution," Maximilian says. "We spent six months waiting for a Shopify integration that never came."

Switching ERP systems mid-flight as order volume takes off 

The IOS Clothing team decided to switch ERP systems during ongoing operations. "Honestly, I was nervous. Our old system had run stably for 15 years, it was connected to accounting, everything worked," Maximilian says. "But there was no other option."

The CEO wanted a system that could support B2B processes while also enabling B2C growth. During online research, he came across Xentral's ERP and decided to tackle the implementation together with digital agency founderlab (Commerce OS).

"The data import was probably the most demanding part, but also the most important. IOS had around 200,000 products that we had to completely restructure," recalls Dennis Fühner from founderlab. The reason: the old data structure had to be mapped to Xentral's logic to lay the groundwork for automation.

Freeing up minds and hands for what matters 

IOS Clothing and founderlab tackled that challenge together, and on September 1, 2023, just in time for Black Friday season, the new ERP system went live. According to Maximilian, the improvements were felt immediately: "Right after the switch, a lot of people didn't know what to do with themselves."

Before Xentral, the team was maxed out at 30 to 40 B2C orders per day. "Today we do 160 by lunchtime and still have time for returns and planning," the CEO says, adding: "We're doing much more revenue with the same people, and everyone's working at a relaxed pace."

Together with Xentral, the team also introduced mobile scanners and optimized the picking process. Shipping error rates dropped significantly. "We used to just look at the label and hope it was right. Today it beeps if something's off. That's a completely different level of quality," the CEO says. And the standout result: revenue climbed from 1 million to 6 million euros without adding headcount.

Looking ahead: Knitwear, returns, and more automation 

IOS Clothing is currently expanding its assortment with new materials like merino knitwear and new product lines. Internally, the next step is further automating the returns process.

"There are still plenty of things to work on, but we've laid the foundation," Maximilian says. He's convinced that growth is only possible with well-thought-out, automated processes, and that systems like Xentral are an essential prerequisite.

Bottom line 

The story of IOS Clothing shows what happens when a 70-year-old, long-established B2B company takes the leap into the D2C business—and doesn’t let its ERP system hold it back. Today, the team processes 160 orders a day without a single error, has increased revenue sixfold from one to six million euros, and hasn’t hired a single additional employee in the process. This was made possible because Xentral and founderlab restructured 200,000 items and automated the Shopify integration while the business remained operational. For growing e-commerce brands looking to break free from a B2B inventory management system or a legacy system, this is the difference between “we keep typing” and “we scale.”