The Alexa effect: Mulberry celebrates its 40th birthday by quadrupling its profits
The Alexa effect: Mulberry celebrates its 40th birthday by quadrupling its profits
High-profile handbags helped the British fashion brand Mulberry almost quadruple its profits last year.
The Alexa satchel, named after presenter Alexa Chung, was at the forefront of the boom as shoppers ignored the economic downturn.
After being spotted on the arms of models such as Daisy Lowe, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Claudia Schiffer, the standard version of the bag sold out in shops from Beijing to New York – despite a price tag of £785. Also on offer was an ostrich leather version costing £3,750.
Money maker: Alexa Chung with the Alexa bag, left, and with another smaller Mulberry. The brand now has 86 stores and concessions including 44 in the UK
Mulberry, which specialises in leather goods, jewellery and women’s clothing, has benefited from seemingly insatiable demand for its products, particularly from the Far East.
Luxury favourite: Since the Alexa (in oak and bright cabbage) was launched in January 2010, Mulberry has doubled the production of women’s handbags and is expanding capacity at its Somerset factory by 30 per cent
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Producing instantly covetable handbags has become the Mulberry label’s forte, and last year’s Alexa satchel is a case in point.
At one stage, the bag had a waiting list of 1,000 names.
Much of this success is due to creative director Emma Hill, formerly of Marc Jacobs and Chloe, who arrived at the company in 2008 and set about trying to ‘bring a sense of international polish to Mulberry’.
She has certainly succeeded.The trendy Alexa and this year’s Tillie bag sit comfortably next to classic favourites, such as the Bayswater.
And tipped to be gracing fashionistas’ arms in the not-too-distant future are two new additions, Evelina and Effie.
All Mulberry bags bear the same hallmarks – high-quality leather, heavy duty brass hardware and that iconic mulberry tree stamp.
Hill has also broadened the range of clothing, shoes and accessories.
The brand is always fashionable, but never over the top.
Sales rose 69 per cent in a year to £121.6million, the company announced yesterday, posting pre-tax profits of £23.3million in the year to March 31 – an increase of 358 per cent.
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