Next and the Reiss family have upped their stakes in the Reiss fashion brand following strong 2022 trading figures.
Global investor Warburg Pincus has agreed to sell them its holdings in the business, which today has 266 outlets in 18 countries selling women’s, men’s and childrenswear.
Former Next group product director Christos Angelides – who became Reiss chief executive in 2017 – will stay on in the top job as will the rest of the management team and board. The business will also continue to be headquartered in London.
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The deal means Next’s stake in Reiss rises from 51 per cent to 72 per cent while the Reiss family’s holding will increase to 22 per cent. The Reiss management team will hold 6 per cent of the equity in the business.
Reiss – which launched in 1971 selling men’s clothes in Bishopsgate, London – offers a more designer take on traditional high street fashion, and became a favourite of celebrities including the Duchess of Cambridge. It launched its first childrenswear collection in 2021
Leicester-based Next initially took a 25 per cent stake in Reiss two years ago, in a deal estimated at the time to be worth around £200 million.
With Next’s backing and the support of its “Total Platform” to run its website and back-end operations, Reiss achieved sales of £324.6 million last year – up more than a quarter.
Pre-tax profits were up more than 50 per cent at £51.6 million.
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Next chief executive Simon Wolfson said: “Reiss has performed exceptionally well since we first invested in March 2021.
“This success has been driven by the strength of its brand, first class management and the benefits of Total Platform – we look forward to continuing to develop the business with Christos and the Reiss team.
“Warburg Pincus has been an excellent partner throughout the term of our investment and we have enjoyed working with them during the last two years.”
Reiss CEO Christos Angelides said: “We are appreciative of the excellent partnership with Warburg Pincus over the past seven years – their expertise has been instrumental to our sustained development and they have been a strong and trusted partner.
“We look forward to continuing to focus on creating authentic and timeless collections for our customers and over the next few months we will be launching a number of new initiatives that will both expand the breadth and choice of our collections worldwide.”