Hi everyone, here we are !
The number 2 of my monthly review of the fashion world in finance… how are our favourite fashion brands expanding, evolving and getting closer to their consumers, what are their latest strategic moves? Here we go with the events of the last weeks:
16 January 2012
Peacocks goes into administration - the brand has appointed KPMG to advise on the process, as the company has meanwhile amassed over £750m debt to different banks and lenders.
On the 19th January 2012, half of the staff at the Peacocks headquarters were made redundant while the process was being run.
By the 1st of February, KPMG had received 6 bids for the company. The process is not yet finalised and should get to the next round by the middle of February.
The UK brand is getting a lot of interest in spite of a huge debt, but it is likely that the buyers will have to close part of the shops in order to further run the company in a profitable way.
The company had sales of c. £500m back in 2009, and had been boosting its expansion with store openings during the crisis.
20 January 2012
Steve Madden, the American footwear designer, has acquired its Canadian licensee, for some $29m.
The brand will this way be able to run its own shops in Canada from now on, which is a first step before further expanding in this country. It seems that the brand’s success got first confirmed through the licensing agreements, before they decided to get to Canada in a permanent way.
Steve Madden has currently sales of c. $630m, and has been growing by more than 10% / year over the last 4 years. Sales outside US currently represent 30% of the brand revenue.
So far Steve Madden has been operating c. 82 own shops, and is mostly present in the US, as well as in a number of international locations, but only 2 in Europe: Belgium and Ukraine. When will the brand have its own stores in UK? It seems that my compulsive buys haven’t yet convinced them to settle some stores down here ! I will have to look into this more seriously….
2 February 2012
Benetton owners are offering cash totalling EUR 276m to get back all the company shares and want to delist the company from the stock exchange.
The Benetton family is aiming at grabbing a full control over the company again, in an attempt to improve the brand performance at an international level: indeed, Benetton has had stagnating sales of c. € 2bn for the last 4 years, with an average decrease of 0.5% yearly, a sluggish performance compared to its high-street competitors (H&M had 9% growth / year over the last 4 years).
Therefore their positioning needs to be renewed in front of aggressive and innovative advertising campaigns like the ones of H&M for instance (Versace for H&M as latest). Let's see if they are taking the right decision !
Therefore their positioning needs to be renewed in front of aggressive and innovative advertising campaigns like the ones of H&M for instance (Versace for H&M as latest). Let's see if they are taking the right decision !
That's all for now, see you next month for another update !
Sources: BBC news, just-style, companies public information
