Glastonbury’s favorite welly falls sufferer to a gross sales drought
G
lastonbury wouldn’t be Glastonbury with out the sight of an A-lister squelching by means of the competition mud in a pair of Hunter wellies.
But now the corporate behind a Glasto trend accent made nearly compulsory by the likes of Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne and Alexa Chung has fallen sufferer to a drought-driven drying of demand in its largest market, the United States.
Three years of below-average rainfall throughout a lot of the US has hit sales to such a level that Hunter Boot, a royal warrant holder that was additionally a favorite of Princess Diana, has been compelled to file for administration simply days earlier than the occasion with which it’s most carefully related.
The firm, the successor to the unique North British Rubber Company based in Edinburgh in 1856 by a New Jersey entrepreneur, leaves money owed of £100 million and commerce collectors within the UK owed £11.5 million. The sole surviving retail outlet at Bicester Village has shut and uncertainly surrounds the way forward for about 100 jobs.
In a discover from directors AlixPartners, collectors have been instructed that extended “unseasonal weather” within the US, a prolonged Covid shutdown of its manufacturing unit in China and rocketing freight charges have all mixed to make the enterprise unviable. “There’s just not been enough rain in America,” mentioned one supply near the corporate.
The basic welly, handcrafted from 28 particular person components, was first launched in 1956. Hunter additionally sells males’s, ladies’s and youngsters’s waterproof and weatherproof footwear, outerwear, baggage and equipment.
Latest accounts for Hunter Boot present gross sales of £51.5 million in North America in 2021 in contrast with £40.6 million in Europe and group income of £107 million. It had been owned by Pall Mall Legacy, a fund backed by Goldman Sachs, Three Hills Capital Partners, personal fairness agency Searchlight Capital Partners and sportswear group Pentland.
However, regardless of the collapse the footwear label seems set to outlive in a distinct guise as soon as the manufacturing disruption attributable to the administration has been resolved.
The Hunter Boot model and mental property has already been offered to a US firm Authentic — which additionally owns Ted Baker and Reebok and has a stake in David Beckham’s brandee portfolio — for an undisclosed quantity.
Authentic mentioned it has agreed a long-term partnership with UK licensing and distribution administration firm the Batra Group, which can develop into the licensee of Hunter within the UK and continental Europe. In the US, design, wholesale and e-commerce will likely be dealt with by Marc Fisher Footwear.
Clare Kennedy, one of many directors at AlixPartners, mentioned: “We are delighted to have assisted in securing a new home for this storied British brand. We wish Authentic the very best for the future as they look to further elevate the Hunter brand’s global presence.”