Clothing & Shoes
Clothing & Shoes covers the latest developments, strategies, and trends across the UK apparel and footwear market. This section reports on brand performance, product launches, sustainability initiatives, and shifts in consumer demand affecting retailers from high street to luxury. Retail Sector’s Clothing & Shoes coverage provides analysis and business insight for fashion retailers, suppliers, and brand leaders, exploring how innovation, supply chain efficiency, and evolving shopping behaviours are shaping commercial success across the sector.
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Mar- 2019 -12 March
Laybuy launches in the UK with Footasylum partnership
Laybuy, New Zealand’s largest buy now, pay later service, has officially launched in the UK with footwear retailer Footasylum confirmed as its first major retail partner. Laybuy allows consumers to spread the cost of purchases over six interest-free payments, with the first being made at the point of sale. The…
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12 March
Early Learning Centre sold to The Entertainer for £13.5m
Mothercare has sold its Early Learning Centre (ELC) brand to toy retailer The Entertainer for £13.5m. The deal comes as part of restructuring and refinancing at Mothercare, with the retailer saying it means ambitions to be debt free by the end of the year had been bolstered. Mothercare said the…
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11 March
Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green calls in advisors
Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green fashion brand has called in advisors Moorfields Advisory to oversee a strategic review of the company’s business. According to reports by Drapers options under consideration include a possible sale, with a source telling the website Pretty Green was hit “really badly” when House of Fraser’s website…
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8 March
Primark to move 220 roles to Dublin
Primark has announced it will be moving its product operations from Reading to Dublin with 220 staff being told they can either agree to relocate or risk redundancy. The buying, sourcing, quality control, design and merchandising operations departments are currently split between the two cities but the retailer wants to…
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7 March
LK Bennett enters administration
High-end fashion retailer, LK Bennett has announced it has entered administration. The retailer had lined up administrators EY to undertake the process earlier this week, and earlier today (7 March) LK Bennett’s website announced it was no longer accepting customer orders. The company, founded by Linda Bennett, in 1990, has…
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7 March
Quiz shares plunge following sales ‘shortfall’
Quiz, the omni‐channel fashion brand, has seen its shares plummet after it announced it will launch a “thorough review” of its business following a “significant shortfall” in sales. At the time of writing shares, in Quiz have fallen by 50% after it revealed in a trading update covering the 1…
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6 March
Ann Summers seduces former HoF and Game directors
Ann Summers has appointed Game’s chief marketing officer Natalie Amosu and House of Fraser’s former product and trading director Marian Collins, to newly created roles. Collins is expected to work with current managing director Vanessa Gold and chief executive Jacqueline Gold, while it is uncertain which department Amosu will work…
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6 March
Jack Wills hit by £7.5m loss
Fashion retailer Jack Wills suffered an EBITDA loss of £7.5m for the full year to 28 January 2018 compared with £6.3m profit in the previous year. The company’s turnover dropped by 1.1% for the year to £129.3m down from 2017’s figure of £130.8m. Jack Wills attributed this to a “challenging…
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5 March
Clarks closes Somerset factory leaving 35 jobless
Shoe retailer Clarks has confirmed the closure of its robot-assisted shoe factory in Street, Somerset, leaving 35 employees without a job. In January the retailer announced a proposal to cease production and close its Morelight manufacturing facility, and added that “despite [its] best efforts”, the levels of production and cost…
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4 March
Former Debenhams and John Lewis director to launch own brand
Jo Hooper, a former womenswear director at John Lewis and Debenhams is set to launch her own clothing brand. Named Nrby, the new brand will launch with a pop-up store in London’s Belgravia area according to reports by Drapers with a website said to be launched later this week. Nrby’s…
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