Could Browns be next on Frasers Group's shopping list?
Industry rumours suggest that Frasers Group would be the most likely buyer for storied London fashion boutique Browns amid reports that its current owner Farfetch is mulling a sale.
As well as owning Sports Direct and House of Fraser, Frasers Group is the dominant force in UK multi-brand fashion with its Flannels super-boutiques – which are becoming more like mini-department stores in scale with beauty halls and event spaces – expanding across the nation with more than 70 now open. It also acquired the premium fashion boutique business of its rival group JD Sports last year, adding Giulio, Cricket and Tessuti, among others, to its group.
Flannels Newcastle
Frasers could now land Browns, which has a townhouse, tech-enabled store on Brook Street in London's Mayfair (main image), as well as a global online store. WWD has reported that Farfetch, which is in the midst of investigating a delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, is investigating options to sell Browns which it acquired from the founding Burstein family in 2015.
Farfetch has been using the boutique, which was previously based in a series of small inter-connected stores on South Molton Street, as a testbed for its Store of the Future technology, which it deploys to third party brands to create seamless connections between their physical and digital retail platforms. A previous Browns outpost in East London has been closed.
Last week The Telegraph reported that Farfetch founder José Neves was working with bankers at J.P. Morgan to take Farfetch private, after its poor performance on the New York Stock Exchange which has seen it lose 90% of its value since its float in 2018.
Farfetch founder José Neves
Farfetch had been expected to announce its potential delisting last Wednesday (29 November) along with its latest Q3 results but instead issued a short statement saying: "Farfetch Limited, the leading global platform for the luxury fashion industry, will not announce its third quarter 2023 financial results and will not hold its related conference call previously scheduled for Wednesday, November 29, 2023. The company expects to provide a market update in due course.
"The Company will not be providing any forecasts or guidance at this time, and any prior forecasts or guidance should no longer be relied upon."
WWD reports that the departure of Browns' director of buying Ida Petersson was also due to be announced with the financial results. It is understood Petersson has now left and will be revealing her next career move in the new year.
Ida Petersson
With Browns set to be sold all eyes are turning to Frasers Group, which analysts say, has plenty of cash to make a purchase giving it another high profile foothold in luxury fashion. Browns is one of the jewels in the crown of British fashion and has a global reputation for championing design talent and, over the years, has launched many famous international names into the UK market.
The store was established in 1970 by Joan (affectionately known as Mrs B) and Sidney Burstein. It went on to introduce major names, such as Calvin Klein, Missoni, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan and Alaïa to the UK market and famously bought the entire graduate collection of John Galliano in 1984.
It was sold to Farfetch in 2015 and moved into its new Brook Street destination in 2021.
Frasers, meanwhile, is highly acquisitive and keen to establish a reputation as a serious fashion player via its "elevation strategy" currently being executed by its CEO Michael Murray. As well as hoovering up the JD fashion brands, Frasers has been building stakes in major international names, including Mulberry and Hugo Boss and is also building significant shareholdings in online fashion giant Boohoo and ASOS. Yesterday it was revealed that it had upped its stake in Boohoo yet again and now owns a 17.2% making it the largest single shareholder. It also owns more than 20% of ASOS.
