A rundown of the top 5 stories from this week!
Welcome back to Virtua weekly, where we break down the biggest stories emerging from inside Virtua and also the sports, fashion & outdoor industries each week!
Here's what you need to know:
The retailer is investing ￡480m in new bricks and mortar stores across the UK, helping to deliver on its omnichannel goals, creating over 3,400 jobs nationwide.
M&S is investing in new digital services to offer an omnichannel service to customers, including the roll-out of Digital Click & Collect to 130 stores across the UK. The new store pipeline for 2023-2024 includes 8 full-line destination stores in key city centre locations, including a new 97k sq ft store in Leeds White Rose and a 70k sq ft store in Liverpool ONE both due to open in Summer 2023.
Each store has been designed with local families in mind, with shoppers able to browse in settings with wider aisles and a clear line of sight. Market-style food halls that stock the full M&S Food range will be housed at the new stores, along with clothing, home and beauty departments, brand-new M&S cafes, alongside sustainable innovations such as Fill Your Own.
Chief executive Stuart Machin said: “Stores are a core part of M&S’s omnichannel future and serve as a competitive advantage for how customers want to shop today.
Giorgio Belloli will join as chief digital, customer and innovation officer, and Delphine Sonder as Chief Merchandising Officer in newly created roles. Both will report to Burberry CEO Jonathan Akeroyd and join the executive committee.
Belloli joins after more than nine years at FARFETCH , where he most recently served as chief commercial and sustainability officer. He has previously held senior roles at Alexander McQueen and Prada Group
Sonder joins the group after nearly five years at Saint Laurent , where she was general merchandising director. She has also worked in senior roles at 路易·威登 and Chloe.
Ahead of the announcement, Akeroyd said: “I look forward to working closely with them both to progress our strategic priorities and realise Burberry’s potential as the modern British luxury brand.”
The German fashion house reported sales for the 2022 fiscal year rose 27% to a record €3.65bn.
Operating profit rose 47% to €335m after a hugely successful fourth quarter, during which the company reported sales of more than €1bn.
The company added that the core tailoring and formalwear Boss menswear and womenswear lines, as well as the younger, casualwear-focused Hugo brand, all posted double-digit sales improvements in the fourth quarter.
Daniel Grieder, CEO of Hugo Boss, said: “Building on this strong foundation, we will continue to pursue our ambition to ultimately become one of the top 100 global brands.”
Last year was a record breaking one for StockX, and several sneaker brands emerged as major players on the platform.
In a recent report, StockX announced that Salomon experienced 2,277% trade growth in 2022 over 2021, followed by Salomon experiencing 713% growth.
领英推荐
The three remaining brands rounding out the top five were?Rick Owens?(522%),?The North Face, a VF Company?(388%) and?PUMA Group?(326%).
Aside from sneakers, StockX stated in the report that several company records were broken in 2022. StockX hit more than 12 million lifetime buyers last year, and also eclipsed 40 million lifetime trades and 1.5 million lifetime sellers. What’s more, StockX stated roughly 50% of trades on the marketplaces were from international sellers.
The luxury retail group has appointed Sindhura Sarikonda as President of Americas and Elizabeth von der Goltz as?Browns Fashion?Chief Fashion and Merchandising Officer.
José Neves, founder, chairman and chief executive at Farfetch, said in a statement: "Our 2023 plan is very much focused on advancing our platform vision whilst delivering growth, profitability and free cash flow. These hires will help us achieve that."
Farfetch also confirmed that Holli Rogers, chief brand officer and Martin Avetisyan, chief growth officer, will be leaving the company “to pursue other opportunities”.
Virtua's live roles:
We are currently searching for an immediately available European Wholesale Director for a 6 months contracted position with one of our new clients in the lifestyle fashion retail sector. With this position, we are looking for a seasoned wholesale/B2B sales leader with a proven track-record & network in key markets such as the UK, France, Germany & Benelux.
We have recently been retained on a newly open position with one of our long-standing clients in the sports/fashion markets. We are looking for an experienced Events Manager who has a background in sports/fashion or a brand within the consumer goods industry to join our clients impressive brand team.
We have recently been retained by one of our long-standing clients in the sports/fashion sector in the search for a Sr Strategic Key Account Manager based in the UK, responsible for major key account such as JD, Footlocker & ASOS.
We have been retained on a newly open position as Global Head of Marketing with one of our long-standing clients in the sports/fashion sector. The brand has years of impressive heritage, and has been a major player in the sports/lifestyle sector for many years. They are a true classical sports brand, with huge amounts of potential and an impressive archive to help pave the way moving forward.
We have been retained on a newly created position with one of our clients in the lifestyle fashion/outdoor sector in their search for a Sales Manager/Head of Sales & Business Development for the lifestyle channel across the DACH region.
Virtua have been retained on a?newly open position as Global Head of Marketing with one of our long-standing clients in the sports/fashion sector. The brand has years if impressive heritage, and has been a?major player in the sports/lifestyle sector for many years. They are a?true classical sports brand, with huge amounts of potential and an impressive archive to?help pave the way moving forward.
If any of the above positions are of interest to you please reach out to us for more information! If not applicable, we still get new roles coming to us each week and our network spans far and wide across our sectors, so we can reach out on your behalf and see if we can spin you in somewhere!