Trendy North East fashion firm End Clothing posted rising revenues but falling profits following a year of significant investments in national and international store openings.
End was first launched 17 years ago in a small shop on Newcastle’s High Bridge by university graduates Christiaan Ashworth and John Parker, but their rare footwear sales and faithful followers have led to expansion at a rapid pace. The firm now has a new flagship store opposite Newcastle’s Grey’s Monument as well as shops in London and Glasgow, alongside a successful website and OS and Android apps to reach a global audience.
Last March the founding pair sold a majority stake to Carlyle for £750m and accounts for the company now show that they have fully exited the firm. Since the deal, the company has announced expansion plans to take its cool fashions overseas by opening in the Italian home of fashion, Milan, as well as in Manchester, while also launching into womenswear, which it said “resonated well with customers and suppliers and presents a future growth opportunity”.
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During the year Parker Gundersen, formerly President of Retail Operations at LVMH’s travel retail subsidiary DFS Group, was appointed CEO at the group, succeeding founders Christiaan Ashworth and John Parker who “will remain in key positions on the board”. Mr Gundersen has over 20 years of multinational leadership experience spanning retail, luxury goods, e-commerce and strategy consulting.
The accounts covering the year ended March 2022 detail a year of strategic change and investment, during which revenues rose 9.9% from £199.2m to £218.9m, although its margins were affected by significant investments which saw operating profits fall from £44.9m to £38m. Pre-tax profit similarly dropped from £45.3m to £38m, and the overall profit for the year came in at £33.4m, down from £36.7m.
The company said its email subscribers have now grown to 6.3m, while its social media community has increased to over 3.2m followers. It also created more than 100 new jobs, with average headcount rising from 636 to 764.
A report within the accounts says: “Following a challenging prior year which saw significant disruptions linked to Covid-19, the year ended 31 March 2022 has seen an increasing return to more normalised conditions, particularly for End’s physical retail stores. On 1 April 2021, the group led by Lobster Topco Limited acquired 100% of the shareholding in the company from Index Ventures and co-founders and co-CEOs Christiaan Ashworth and John Parker.
“We continue to see high quality, experience-led physical retail as being an important part of our strategy. Over the last year we opened a new flagship store in Newcastle upon Tyne in December 2021 and acquired a freehold site in May 2021 for what will be our largest store to date in Manchester. We signed an agreement in December 2021 to lease our first international store in Milan.
“End’s success continues to be underpinned by its long-term approach and the energy our team put into developing positive, collaborative and lasting relationships with our leading partner brands that now number over 600. As well as retaining our focus on representing each individual brand in an authentic, high quality and aspirational way; we also stepped up our engagement and collaboration to continue to manage and react to ongoing supply challenges that we have seen over the course of the year. These have included European supply challenges post Brexit, Covid-19 related factory closures and global shipping shortages and price pressures.
“The period to 31 March 2022 has seen progress and strategic change. Our focus remains ‘Digital First’ and we have seen continued growth online, most notably in our key UK and US markets. Further international expansion remains central to our strategy, and although Brexit has created significant challenges, we have developed and are continuing to progress our offering to EU customers to enhance our competitive position.”
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