The boss of Castore plans to focus on growing Belstaff’s wholesale and ecommerce channels, as he sets out his vision for the menswear brand under his ownership.
Speaking exclusively to Retail Week, the co-founder and chief executive of Castore Tom Beahon said he’s already “had a load of inbound inquiries” in the wholesale market since acquiring Belstaff from brands across the luxury and mid-market sector.
“The wholesale market really likes Belstaff. Whether that’s Harrods, Selfridges and Mr. Porter at the top of the market, or whether it’s Flannels and House of Frasers in the more mid-market, we think there’s going to be the opportunity to selectively, in a disciplined way, grow out that wholesale channel.”
Since the acquisition of Belstaff by Castore in late August, the menswear brand has opened its sixth store in Leeds in early September. Beahon said he has plans to open more Belstaff stores, both in the UK and abroad, but said they needed to be “the right stores in the right locations and the right size”.
“Is that 1,000 sq ft? Is that 3,000 sq ft? They’ve got to have the right mix of sales,” he added, saying it made more sense to focus on ecommerce growth for Belstaff in the short term.
“In the next five years, will we open more Belstaff stores domestically and internationally? Yes, there will be more openings. But I’m a big believer in data-driven decision making, particularly when you’re running a band, which is an innately emotive thing.
“Where I’ve seen brands go wrong is because they make decisions emotively, rather than via data. I’m a big believer in data and ecommerce as a channel gives you more data than any other.
“Germany is a good market for Belstaff, the second biggest outside of the UK. Would we one day open a standalone Belstaff store in Germany? That’s definitely a possibility. But I would really study my ecommerce platform, prove that I can first drive ecommerce revenues – 10%, 20%, 30%, understand who our customers are, what their postcodes are, where we have the density of customers before I considered opening a physical store.”
In a wide-ranging discussion on his future plans for the brand under his ownership, Beahon also ruled out stocking Belstaff products in Castore stores or on its ecommerce site and said while there were ways the menswear brand could be “run more efficiently”, he didn’t want to make swinging changes to the leadership team or staffing structure.
“Like every person running a retail business at the moment, and particularly one that’s losing money, is my plan to go in there and make zero changes? No, that’d be a lie.
“But those changes will be made in the context of ‘how are we going to grow this business?’ Often that’s in reallocating resources rather than cutting people. But this business is going to have to evolve, just like everyone in this sector will”.
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