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Drapers take on Miss G
Boohoo and Missguided: Boohoo Group is reportedly working on a pre-pack administration deal to buy Missguided, The Times reported. Missguided is thought to be close to calling in administrators, and has been accused of leaving suppliers hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket.
The newspaper said that Boohoo has entered exclusivity talks with Missguided's advisers at restructuring firm Teneo, and that a deal could be struck by today (30 May). It also stated that a deal has not yet been finalised, or if Boohoo was interested in the Missguided brand or the entire business.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61423753
Full BBC article.
Of course we need to closely watch what Asos does on this, we could be at a turning point on free returns Next also charge if they collect, fine balance but it now seems a massive burden on bottom line so for all to not follow suit is a hard call.
Long Article sorry
Contd
Earlier today (24 March), Next lowered its sales and profit guidance for the year ahead following the invasion of Ukraine and other macro-economical challenges, despite strong full-year results to January 2022. Total group sales at Next were up by 11.5% to £4.9bn in the year to 31 January 2022, compared to the same period in 2019/20.
In Next’s January trading statement Wolfson set out the reasons for taking a cautious approach in 2022.
He highlighted five big uncertainties which tempered our expectations, including (i) the unwinding of pandemic savings, (ii) a return to spending on travel and leisure, (iii) inflation in competing essential goods, (iv) inflation in Next’s selling prices, and (v) likely increases in UK taxes and mortgage rates.
@Drapers#Bella
Next’s Simon Wolfson: 3 ‘sea changes’ happening in the industry
Next’s CEO Lord Simon Wolfson has outlined three ways in which the retail industry is changing as the world begins to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
“The pandemic accelerated the transformation of our industry, delivering in a couple of years, changes we expected to take five or more,” Wolfson said. “As we emerge from the pandemic, and despite the political and economic uncertainties, the future shape of our industry is becoming clearer.”
He said there are three related “sea changes” appearing that are central to the way in which the industry is moving. These included:
An abundance of choice
"The change to our industry is more profound than a simple shift from high street stores to shopping online. The internet has served to dramatically increase shoppers' choices; bringing consumers more designs, more brands, more colours, more sizes and broader price ranges.
"So today, consumers in even the remotest parts of the UK can enjoy a choice of products that would put to shame the very best of the world’s high streets in the early 2000’s."
The growth of online aggregators
"In the last five years the competitive environment has changed beyond recognition. Online aggregators, websites that sell many different third-party brands, have become increasingly important (Asos, Zalando, Tmall, Myntra, and many others, including Next); while many businesses, that seemed part of an immutable retail landscape, have all but disappeared."
New world for new brands
"It has never been less expensive or faster to set up and roll out a new brand. Gone are the days when new brands needed to spend decades developing a store network.
"Today, brands can deliver their own fully functioning website, with national reach, in a matter of months (albeit the complexity and cost of website functionality are rising rapidly). More importantly, online aggregators can enable new brands to gain access to millions of customers worldwide and overnight."
Wolfson said that as time goes on, it "appears likely that there will be a greater number of brands, with wider geographical reach, served by a smaller number of aggregators".
He said that in this environment, Next's aim is clear: (i) to extend the Next brand’s breadth of offer and international reach and (ii) strive to build an aggregation business that is the natural first choice for fashion, homeware and beauty customers in the UK and Eire.
@Drapers#Gabriele
Boohoo ups sustainability by partnering with CottonConnect
Boohoo Group have partnered with CottonConnect, which works with farmers in ****stan to grow cotton using more sustainable methods.
Boohoo Group is working with CottonConnect, an organisation that educates cotton farmers in ****stan about the benefits of using sustainable production methods.
Together, they have trained 2,500 farmers on how to grow cotton more sustainably, allowing Boohoo to trace it back to the village it's grown in.
The production of REEL cotton (Responsible Environment Enhanced Livelihoods) has involved training at specifically developed demonstration plots. Boohoo product made using REEL cotton is signposted with 'Ready For the Future' labels.
Sustainably grown cotton results in a better yield and higher net income for farmers.
Cotton seeds captured during the cleaning process are either replanted or used as a by-product to create cooking oil, or as fuel in a local factory.
CottonConnect also educates farmers about the benefits of reducing the use of pesticides. This has resulted in honey bees returning to the cotton field, allowing the farmers to produce their own honey, which provided an additional revenue stream.
The partnership has started with picking the final cotton from the 2021 harvest. The REEL process allows the business to trace and track the cotton throughout the supply chain. The cotton is then cleaned using a process called ginning and transported from the field to be spun into yarn, then woven into fabric and dyed.
Andrew Reaney, director of responsible sourcing & product operations at Boohoo Group said: "We are delighted to be partnering with CottonConnect and the individual farmers in ****stan. I have been able to see the project first-hand and the benefits the CottonConnect program provides, including in-depth training, a better yield of cotton, lower costs, and environmental benefits. We are committed to supporting the farmers and it is only year one of this partnership, we are looking forward to seeing what the future holds."
@Drapers#Bella
Boohoo Group has opened a laboratory to offer in-house garment testing to its brands and suppliers, in collaboration with technical testing company TÜV Rheinland.
Located in the basement of its Manchester head office, “the Lab” is a first for the group and will allow for fast, efficient, and cost-effective in-house garment testing, it said.
The new facility will give the business and its suppliers “better visibility of product performance, with a variety of retail testing available to ensure that products meet both the legal and performance standards required”.
The different testing technologies include X-ray fluorescent (XRF) guns, dye-migration testing and state-of-the-art washers and dryers.
The business has also started to buy fabric directly from textile mills and the Lab will allow for those fabrics to be tested on quality and durability, so the business and the customer can “be more confident around the longevity of the fabrics”.
Booohoo Group operates Boohoo, BoohooMan, PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal, MissPap, Debenhams, Karen Millen and Coast.
PP1 i think you should take some time out from the news, last four posts have been about the conflict and whilst i'm sure all on here share your concerns it is a bit out of kilter with a share chat board that some probably come on to escape the day to day, especially looking at some of the comments, lol.
T4G , re AW supply chain.
Orders being placed far far earlier to mitigate delays on freight, one thing that is currently happening is that BH Group are culling alot of orders on the new Brands they bought in, stripping it back to minimum qtys. Could be for a couple of reasons, like all retailers/e-tailers stock intake dates that were expected are erratic so they are trying to smooth out DC intake, plus given that World is in such a fckuing mess they are being cautious on demand. Of course no surprise but tomorrow's update will like all companies selling to public have to once again strike a large amount of caution re demand due to uncertainty, should be case of just steady as she goes, as mentioned before tho the young fashionista Brands of PLT/BH do tend to be of the carefree type so with i feel with their spread of Brands they do at least tick two large boxes of ideal demo to weather the turmoil better than most.
Bit more flesh on the bones, still not quite best in show but deffo taking this very seriously and substantial steps taken, the danger for all retailers is for the overseas factories, they cannot be allowed to drift backwards after audits, Boo Hoo must adopt snap audits that come out of the blue, any red non compliance must result in onerous fines or for gross misconduct in addition to fines, disengagement, this sends a very strong message that in today's World if you do not stick to the rules then you will find it almost impossible to operate because once you have been black listed then retailers will not go within a Country mile of them.
https://www.just-style.com/news/boohoo-suppliers-to-face-more-stringent-checks-under-new-system/?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter
Muscles, i think it's very naive to think that many companies through the World have not been through some bad practice before getting a grip and handle on it, for the actual rag trade Rana Plaza is up there with one of the worst malpractices, a shocking 1100 people died and 2500 people were injured, this resulted in Primark handing over 6 million pounds of compensation to the victims, the trade vowed to change and for it to be turning point and yet during Covid we saw CSR disappear into thin air, many factories unpaid and left with stock and just last week we saw Asos pile a 2% retrospective discount onto suppliers, these were order already placed and on invoice, they did the same thing 2 years ago, even Phillip Green wasn't this ruthless in such a difficult period when many factories are struggling to survive, so much for Asos's Fashion with Integrity strap line !!
https://fashionista.com/2020/04/rana-plaza-7-year-anniversary
So it's very easy to carry on beating someone with the same sihtty stick but if it is an agenda for change then they really need to be cut a bit of slack and perhaps the media finally turn their attention to the much less regulated eg Shein which really needs addressing.
Into Fashion then you need to know this, if not then at least you can impress the Wife or IT or THE.
Pantone top AW22 Colour is Waterspout 14-4618tcx, this ref can be found in one of there ridiculously expensive books that we have to buy each year to obtain the chips.
Anyway for those who don't have access to the book Waterspout is a mix between light Turq and Duck Egg Blue.
Your Welcome
T4G i mentioned couple of weeks back (i think) that actually on shipping to DC , (B2B) leadtime BH is less exposed than most, they have UK in house production plus they are sourcing a lot from Turkey, this comes in by Truck, takes about one week, they opened up a buying office there last year, great move. The brand spread is good mix of demo's requiring some quick and some longer leadtimes. They still have B2C delivery issues tho!!
#T4G @I see him as a bit of sport and banter tbh, LoL.
Aw 22 bookings happening at a pace for UK, everyone booking far earlier, freight delays can now be factored in at least for DC deliveries, prices increases by 5 to 10% being accepted.
@TFG for the record, after years if working for others in the trade i set this company up with my Partner over 17 years, we opened up a buying office in India the early noughties, we now have two wholly owned factories with 1500 workers across both sites and a UK marketing office, as well as supplying most of UK young Fashion we also supply stores, in EU (WE) Israel too many to mention, NZ (Hallenstein), Aus (CottonOn) as for the GingerTroll, green screen him not worth effort of trying to explain your superior knowledge, oddly some of the knowledge i argued with him about BH Group, in some areas, having a way to go to match Asos seems to have sunk in, from what i can glean he now appears to see them as the more advanced of the two which is a 180 turn, always in hindsight (he wrote the book with same title) hilarious.