Marks & Spencer’s menswear boss Mitch Hughes tells Retail Week that its tie-up with the Williams F1 team is a “huge opportunity” for the retailer to grow its own-brand Autograph sales and connect with new prospective customers.
M&S announced it was joining the Atlassian Williams F1 team as an official kit partner on Wednesday, in a multi-year partnership which will see the retailer dress the team’s leaders, drivers, and engineers for travel to and from events, as well as for events and media appearances.
Hughes said the partnership appealed to M&S because it chimes directly with the brand’s desire to be “where sport, culture and fashion genuinely intersect, and we will continue to be led by insight and what our customers are telling us”.
Hughes also said the new partnership represented a huge opportunity for M&S to tap into both the burgeoning success of F1 globally and allow it to target one of its key customer demographics: younger males.
“The momentum behind Formula 1 has never been stronger, and with M&S Fashion doubling down on broadening appeal and becoming a serious destination for style, this partnership is a natural fit for us,” he said.
“Becoming increasingly relevant to younger male customers is a central part of our long-term growth strategy,” he added. “[Creating] products that fit around our customers’ lifestyles and tapping into cultural moments they care about is key to maintaining and growing the momentum behind M&S menswear.
“There’s so much opportunity ahead, including doubling down on growing our younger customer base, and focusing on our key growth categories like formal, casual, footwear and activewear. Plus, showing up where our customers are and joining in on the conversations and cultural moments that they really care about is key.”
While Hughes wouldn’t break out sales at a category level, he said that the sales of the retailer’s own-brand Autograph range have quadrupled in the last three years. Hughes puts this success down to changing customer needs around hybrid working.
“Autograph Performance was designed to bring together technical innovation and modern style. We’re seeing real demand from customers who want clothing that supports today’s hybrid, work-life-leisure way of living,” he said.
“It plays in a space that simply didn’t exist for us a few years ago. Clothing that’s refined enough for the office, functional enough for movement, and versatile enough for everyday life.”
Hughes also noted that “sport-inspired design” in clothing has moved beyond the gym and has become “a mainstream style driver”.
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