By George, fight is on in fashion
GEORGE, the fashion chain owned by supermarket giant Asda, is aiming to overthrow Marks & Spencer, Primark and Tesco, and regain the position of the UK’s biggest clothing retailer within three years.
The group’s boss, Anthony Thompson, a former retail director at M&S, believes George – whose "face" is currently Coleen McLoughlin, fiancée of Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney – would need to boost sales by around £500 million a year to around £2.5 billion to supplant his former employer as market leader.
Asda is presently in fourth spot in the clothing league table with an eight per cent slice of the market, while leader M&S has 12 per cent.
Mr Thompson, who quit M&S last year after a reported bustup with chief executive Sir Stuart Rose over the group’s strategy, said: "Why can’t we take M&S off the top in terms of volume market share in three years?
"We have done it for a while in 2004, and now we want to do it on a 52week rolling basis."
He said rivals had grown faster than George in recent years and that was "not acceptable". He added: "We want to move from a slightly stalled position, select the right gear and move on,"
George – which built its brand on fast, convenient and lowcost products during the 1990s – was already on course to pip Tesco and grab third position, insisted Mr Thompson.
George now plans to sell more basics, such as socks, underwear and denim. It is also looking to attract more customers in the 2544 and 5564 age ranges – people the retailer has tended to neglect.
According to Mr Thompson, George’s growth stalled because it focused too much on fashion for younger people and was now gearing itself towards the wider audience, as well as online shoppers.
Analysts said George accounted for less than 20 per cent of Asda’s current transactions.
George’s "Fast Fashion" and "Musthave" labels, introduced by previous George head Angela Spindler –are to be axed, while two new labels Moda for women and Boston Crew for men have been introduced for 40somethings. Cutprice promotions are also to be axed.
Original source : The Scotsman
