Coggles to remain online only following Flannels taking over Alderley Edge store

Coggles, once one of the UK’s best known independent fashion boutiques originally trading from York since 1974, and acquired by Frasers Group from THG in June 2024, is reportedly to be kept as a digital platform only.

Coggles fell into administration in 2013 with its physical stores closing and was acquired by THG (then The Hut Group), which opened a new Coggles boutique in the affluent Cheshire village of Alderley Edge in 2017.

However, following the Frasers Group’s acquisition of Coggles, the store was closed down after seven years at the end of September 2024 and, according to Alderleyedge.com, there was a notice on the shop window reading: "This store has now closed for refurbishment. Please visit our website Flannels.com".

The 4,000 sq ft Alderley Edge store, previously a restored former NatWest bank, reopened on 31 October as a Frasers Group-owned Flannels.

According to reports, the Coggles digital platform will continue to be operated by a separate team based in Manchester.

Frasers Group may have decided to keep Coggles online due to a slightly different target audience and brand portfolio from what customers would expect to find in Flannels’ stores. Though there are crossover brands, Coggles online currently sells brands such as Corridor, Flower Mountain, Percival, Portuguese Flannel, Farm Rio and Kleman – which don’t currently feature at Flannels.

While the Coggles name will remain for the time being, as reported last week, another of Frasers Group’s acquisitions, Philip Browne in Norwich, will it seems not survive even as an online-only business.

The store, which currently has an up to 70% off clearance Sale, will close down in mid-December and the website has already been taken down.

Flannels opened a 20,000 sq ft store at Chantry Place in Norwich at the end of April 2024, which seemingly signalled the fate of Philip Browne.

Flannels has also just opened a new 20,000 sq ft store at the Midsummer Place Shopping Centre in Milton Keynes, bringing its portfolio to over 80 stores in the UK and Ireland in what Frasers Group’s Head of Luxury & Premium, Lauren Barrie, describes as its "mission to extend luxury to every corner of the UK".

The Milton Keynes opening comes hot off the heels of Flannels opening a new 'league of its own' 70,000 sq ft flagship store at 115-126 Briggate in Leeds last month, in what was a former Debenhams site.