New Look, the British high street shop that’s done collaborations in the past with everyone from Luella to Giles to Tatty Devine, plans on hopping back on the London Stock Exchange.
The second-largest women’s retailer in the U.K. wants to raise money–about $1 billion–in order to spruce up its existing stores and also build new ones both in the UK and abroad. (That means, possibly, the US.) The company was taken private by UK equity firm Apax partners in 2004.
If you’ve never been to New Look, it’s kind of like a junky Topshop. The clothes are mostly knock-offs and really, really poorly made. However, I was living in London when the Luella and Tatty Devine collections hit and I have to say, they were stellar.
But would New Look succeed in the US the way Topshop has?
That, I’m not so sure of, but with a bit more thought and money put into the stores, it’s possible.
Tags: Giles, IPO, Luella Bartley, New Look, TopShop
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Has Topshop really succeeded here in NYC? I was very disappointed with the quality to price ratio. In a city where you can go to a sample sale and get a much higher quality item for the same price, I’d be surprised if they were that successful. Perhaps in Philadelphia or Detroit or somewhere people have less access to sample sales… Maybe New Look would be more like a Forever 21 and therefore a much lower price point?
Whether or not Topshop is successful enough to open yet another location in the city remains to be seen–they haven’t released numbers on that specific store–but my guess is yes. Like a lot of NYC flagships, TS relies on tourism dollars. (Kind of ironic, right seeing that so many foreign countries already have Topshop.)
Guessing New Look’s pricepoint would be that of American Eagle’s, with quality like Forever 21, unfortunately.
I think TS is doing fine in NYC, and it’s not all tourists. Though if they only had tourists that would not be to worry, there are so many.
So it is for real, New Look wants to raise $1 billion? That’s a giant IPO in these skinny markets. Good luck to them.