Former MTV star Ross Worswick has revealed why he and his business partner decided to buy back their fashion empire from JD Sports.
Mr Worswick, who first found fame after appearing on MTV's Ex on the Beach reality series in 2014, co-founded The Couture Club with and entrepreneur Scott Shashua in 2015 with just a £5,000 investment.
But following a seven-figure deal for JD Sports' 40% stake the brand, which is worn by the likes of Manchester City and England star Jack Grealish, boxer Deyonte Wilder and Love Island stars, is now on track to enjoy a record year.
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The deal, which was first reported by BusinessLive in February, saw the Manchester brand split from its largest shareholder 2squared Agency, which itself had been acquired by JD Sports in 2017 after it hit financial difficulty.
The transaction was completed ahead of Bury-headquartered JD Sports agreeing to sell a number of brands to Mike Ashley's retail empire Frasers Group for almost £50m.
Now Mr Worswick, who is married to I'm A Celebrity star Carl Fogarty's daughter, Danielle, has revealed why he and his business partner decided to buy back their company and what the future holds.
"Before we knew that JD Sports were going to sell anything we were both just really keen to buy back 100% of the company again", Mr Worswick said.
"We have been doing a lot of work on what direction we want to take the business
"It was a positive relationship but we now want to take what we have learnt and take the brand to the next level.
"We were the ones driving the business the whole time and we have the passion for the business.
"Sometimes having a corporation involved, not that it slowed us down in any way, was a bit too corporate for what we wanted to do. We just wanted full ownership of everything single thing that we do."
He added: "To be fair JD Sports did not restrict us in any way but it was just more that someone else owned a major part of your business but you're the ones doing all the hard work and you're not going to see the whole rewards of that.
"For us, putting the money up ourselves and buying the shares back shows to our team and everyone around us that we really believe in the future of the brand and the direction that we're going."
On the company's partnership with JD Sports, Mr Worswick said: "We learnt a lot and they supported us in every way.
"They helped us understand the retail landscape and setting up our physical store in the Trafford Centre. That was something that we would probably have never thought to have done or had the contacts to make it happen. They really did push us and supported us to do it.
"We were working with Peter Cowgill very closely and he was super for us but when he left we didn't really have a relationship with anyone else at JD Sports.
"It ended up that we were working with a company that we didn't have a relationship with anyone as there is a new CEO and totally new team.
"Everything that we ever did was with Peter so when he left we thought that it was the time to go as we could afford to buy back the company.
"It makes sense for the two people who founded the company and set the direction for it to take full ownership of it and really take it to the next level."
The Couture Club now has 55 employees and since the start of its new financial year on February 1, the brand is "tracking 100% up" compared to the prior year.
Mr Worswick said the company has done "a lot of working on elevating the quality of the product" as well as improving its marketing in order to move into the luxury fashion space in the next two years.
He added: "We didn't ever want to be close to the fast fashion market but some of our customers maybe thought that we might have been part of it so we're moving to more of a traditional model of seasonal sales and producing high quality clothing at good value.
"I'd describe us as affordable luxury. Our hoodies are upwards of £65 and when you look at other fashion brands such as Boohoo they would probably sell one for £12."
On how the business has fared over the last few years, Mr Worswick said: "We've had some challenges but we have performed OK.
"However over the last six months we have really started to gain traction again. We grew very rapidly at the start and then plateaued for a year after lockdown.
"We've had a year and half of being quite steady and we've just started to see the growth again now.
"I think that's due to product change and I've got a lot more involved in the design team and focusing on the product."
Mr Worswick said The Couture Club is now expected to hit around £12m in sales this year but that it's "already in the process of re-forecasting to improve that" and it remains "very profitable".
Looking to the future, the brand is preparing to take on new employees as well as grow its sales overseas.
"We've seen huge growth initially from the US while The Netherlands is also a major market for us", Mr Worswick said.
"It's really exciting when you hit a new market and the customers there seem to be even more invested in our products than some of our UK customers.
"I'm super excited about everything that's going on at the moment. We've just shot our spring/summer campaign in Greece which was unbelievable and probably the best shoot we have done to date.
"There is a lot of positivity going on inside the business and I think the staff are feeling it as well.
"The culture is really great and the morale is very high but it tends to be when sales are good."
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