Charles Tyrwhitt: Demand for quarter-zips and gilets to lift future sales
Charles Tyrwhitt expects the business to grow by 20 per cent over the next year, helped by a demand for more casual attire.
Suits and shirts specialist Charles Tyrwhitt expects the business to grow by 20 per cent over the next year as demand for more casual work attire, such as quarter-zips and gilets, booms.
The retailer, which has spent the past four decades supplying the likes of ties and blazers to office workers, said it sees “growth in customers shopping baskets from more casual categories”.
Workplace dress codes have become less stringent ever since employees returned to the office following the pandemic.
The company said it has tapped “into the expansion of the modern man’s working wardrobe to become the go to brand for dressing men for the work ‘day ahead’, from ‘suited and booted’ to ‘dress down Fridays’.”
Before the pandemic, the business was turning over around £220m. This fell to around £100m during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the year to July, the retailer’s sales jumped 45 per cent to £269m and underlying profits came in at £44m, compared with £16.6m the year before.
Charles Tyrwhitt, founded by businessman Nick Wheeler, said it was a “record year” for the business.
Tyrwhitt has opened seven new stores in the past 18 months – with additional locations planned to open in the next year.
This Friday, a new, 4,200 square foot store will open on Regent Street in London, and the firm is also investing heavily in refitting and refurbishing a number of its stores, including its Madison Avenue site in New York.
The firm said: “Charles Tyrwhitt is a changing brand that has experienced tremendous growth in the midst of consistently gloomy news in the retail industry – not many British businesses are backing bricks and mortar – or expanding with ambition – and success, to the same extent.”
News of expanding its physical store presence will be a welcomed boost for the UK’s highstreet which has struggled in the face of the cost of living crisis and changing consumer habits after the pandemic.
Charles Tyrwhitt’s rival TM Lewin closed all 66 of its stores two years ago after it was bought out of administration by SCP Private Equity. The 120 year old business now exclusively trades online.
