The management team of ethical fashion brand
Howies has bought the business back from VF
Corporation. Howies was founded by Claire and David Hieatt in
1995 in Cardigan Bay, Wales. It was sold to US-based
Timberland in 2006. Timberland was subsequently
acquired by VF Corporation, the owner of The North
Face, Vans and Eastpak
brands in a deal worth $2 billion last year. On 1st January 2012,
the Howies management team completed its acquisition of the
business from VF, for an undisclosed sum.
Alison Lancaster, currently cross-channel director at apparel
retailer/cataloguer White Stuff, is joining
nursery products etailer Kiddicare.com as chief
marketing officer next week.
Cornish apparel retailer Seasalt is set to
launch its first print catalogue, reports the Western Morning News.
Mobile-phone accessories etailer Mobile Fun
reports robust Christmas trading with sales up 13 per cent
compared to the same period of 2010. The company experienced a
particularly strong December, with orders up 32 per cent on
December 2010 and sales of more than £1.1 million. A healthy
performance from its German, French, Dutch and Spanish websites
offset a slight weakness in UK trading in the run up to
Christmas.
The online arm of Barratts Priceless as well as
89 stores have been bought by former owner Michael Ziff. The deal
represents the second time Ziff, a descendant of the company’s
founder, has rescued the business in less than three years,
reports the Telegraph.
The future of Peacocks looks uncertain as the
Royal Bank of Scotland refused to refinance the retailer’s
£600 million debt. The move could see Peacocks appoint
administrators in the coming weeks. In related news, the Guardian writes that turnaround specialist
Sun European Capital is buying Peacocks’ sister chain
Bonmarche.
According to the Financial Times, Sports
Direct is set to buy lossmaking surfwear retailer
Hot Tuna for £950,000.
Technology website Cnet reports on the Zappos
security breach. According to a blog post, which is not
accessible to international visitors of the Zappos website, a
hacker gained access to the company’s internal network its
servers in Kentucky. Zappos says that credit card and payments
data were not accessed or affected by the criminal but that
customers’ names, email addresses, billing and shipping
addresses, phone numbers, the last four digits of their credit
card numbers, and their partial passwords may have been illegally
accessed.
The Scotsman interviews Luke Heron, the
entrepreneur behind ethical fashion brand
Ascension, which he bought from
Adili for £1 in 2010 and former lead
investor in eco-friendly cataloguer Green
Baby.
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