In Review 2023: The major M&A deals in British fashion retail

Fashion retail has slowly picked back up after a troubling 2022 - when we saw the cost of living crisis, supply chain strife, rising costs, war, strikes and extreme weather cause closures across Britain's high street.

While several companies met their fate, retail giants - such as the likes of Frasers and Authentic Brands - swept in to claim failing businesses and add them to their ever-growing brand portfolios.

Below we round up some of the most significant moves of the past 12 months and take a look ahead at what we might expect in the coming year.

Frasers showed no signs of slowing down this year

Last year, Frasers Group took the cake in terms of the amount of acquisitions it made. This year, the company has made headlines yet again after continually increasing its stake in fast fashion brands ASOS and Boohoo.

Frasers, which owns Sports Direct, House of Fraser and Flannels among others, increased its shareholding in Boohoo twice this month to 17.2% from 5.23% earlier in the year.

Boohoo

Despite ASOS' financial struggles, the group also increased its stake in the online retail giant in the same month. The group increased its shareholding in ASOS to 22.7%, from 19.6% previously.

It has been speculated that Frasers Group may be trying to fashion an online mega-merger with ASOS and Boohoo in the upcoming year.

ASOS

Authentic Brands continued to nab struggling businesses

Alike Frasers, Authentic Brands was busy snapping up businesses from Vince to Hunter and Rockport. ABG is a global brand management company, which owns, manages, and seeks to elevate the long-term value of a global portfolio of brands. For over a decade, ABG has acquired majority ownership interests in over 50 brands including Reebok, Nautica, and Juicy Couture.

In April, ABG struck a deal to acquire Vince’s intellectual property (IP) after the womenswear business suffered financial losses.

Vince Holding Corp. moved Vince’s intellectual property to a newly formed subsidiary controlled by Authentic Brands Group. In return, Vince received a £61.4 million ($76.5 million) payout from ABG. The 25% ownership stake in the subsidiary is now known as ABG Vince. ABG has a majority ownership of 75% and the remaining 25% is retained by Vince.

Vince

In June, the company acquired the intellectual property of British heritage brand Hunter. The addition of Hunter drives Authentic’s strategy of diversifying its portfolio with brands that originate from outside of the US.

In the following month, Authentic Brands Group announced that it had saved innovative footwear brand Rockport from bankruptcy by adding it to its impressive footwear portfolio. With the acquisition, ABG plans to leverage its expertise in brand development and strategic partnerships to unlock Rockport's potential.

Hunter

Shein gave Frasers a run for its money with Missguided buy

In October, the Chinese-founded fast-fashion giant Shein made its first acquisition in the UK, buying women’s clothing brand Missguided for an undisclosed amount.

The company said it plans to "reignite" the brand, which was bought out of administration just a year and a half ago by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group. The deal saw Singapore-headquartered Shein buy Missguided’s intellectual property and trademarks.

Missguided

NEXT bolsters third-party offering with FatFace

October was a busy month for business acquisitions. In the same month, NEXT tightened its grip on the UK high street confirming the acquisition of fashion and lifestyle retailer FatFace for £115.2 million.

The deal allows FatFace to continue driving its growth plans over the coming years, still led by Will Crumbie, who was appointed as chief executive in 2021.

It came just three years after FatFace was taken over by lenders and builds on the brand's existing trading relationship with NEXT, via its LABEL online third-party brands business.

FatFace

Sign of the Times made strategic acquisitions 

The rise and fall of luxury resellers saw Sign of the Times purchase two failed companies' assets - Cudoni and PapillonKia.

The London-based luxury resale platform, purchased the assets of the pre-loved platform Cudoni in August after the start-up collapsed into administration in April 2023.

Marking its second acquisition of the year, in November, the company independently purchased the assets from PapillonKia, a designer preloved accessories marketplace, which also collapsed earlier this year.

Sign of the Times