Tailoring group sets store target
Tailoring group BMB is planning to open more than 30 stores across the UK, following its acquisition of Hardy Amies-owner Stuncroft.

Leeds-based BMB is targeting prosperous market towns to launch the stores.

The company has seven outlets in the UK, including five Haggar shops and a branch of Alexandre Savile Row in London.

'It's my ambition to take that up to about 40 in the next 18 months,' said BMB chairman and chief executive Peter Lucas. 'We want to have a retail balance to our business. We are looking for the Guildfords, the Baths, the Cambridges. We're not going for the Bluewaters.'

The group is steering away from major city centres to avoid competing with the department stores already housing BMB products.

'We are looking at the fascia that we want to use,' said Lucas. 'There are a number of different brands, and we have to work out which to launch in which location.' A marketing agency has been appointed to help BMB select the best fascias to use.

'[The former Stuncroft brand] Gibson is a name that would lend itself to a good half a dozen stores. I'd also like to open a branch of Alexandre in the City,' said Lucas.

The stores are likely to offer a range of BMB brands, as well as other selected brands. This follows the pattern of the group's Aston and Gunn store in Bermuda, which stocks Hugo Boss, Firetrap and Armani.

With a turnover of£150 million, BMB is already the largest suits business in the UK, with brands including British Tailor, Centaur, Chatsworth, Karl Jackson and Jeff Banks London. They are mainly distributed through wholesalers and department stores, including Debenhams and Selfridges.

The Stuncroft deal adds The Label, Daniel Dresscott, Scott International Charley O'Brian and Harmers to the group's portfolio, as well as Gibson and Hardy Amies, the made-to-measure menswear brand created by the late dressmaker to the Queen.

Formerly the menswear business, BMB was formed by a management buyout in 2000, led by Lucas.

It has recently relaunched Baracuta, the iconic menswear brand once worn by Steve McQueen and Elvis Presley.

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