London fashion house Kurt Geiger has broken records for its peak sales season thanks to the support of A-list celebrities who wear the brand.
Fashionistas such as Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Kylie Jenner and Paris Hilton helped sales rise by 15% to £45m. Handbags and accessories led the trend, making it the most profitable month in the Clerkenwell-based designer’s history.
UK store sales including 2,900 sq ft store oxford street Core products were up 12% and online sales were up 45%. However, this growth was driven by the United States, where overall sales increased by 60%.
Geiger attributes some of its success to relatively aggressive pricing. The average price for the company’s signature leather handbags is £250, while its main competitors cost thousands of pounds.
The collection also reflects the brand’s capital-based identity, with ranges named ‘Kensington’, ‘Shoreditch’ and ‘Southbank’.
The company announced today that “the Kurt Geiger brand is quickly becoming a British accessories icon in the US” as part of a “global movement towards affordable luxury”.
Neil Clifford, chief executive of the company, added:
“These results highlight Kurt Geiger’s transformation over the past decade from a primarily British shoe brand to the brand it is today: a global accessory with a passionate following in both the US and UK. It’s a brand.”
Kurt Geiger, named after its Austrian founder, has been owned by London private equity firm Cinven since 2015. The company currently has 74 independent stores in the UK, with handbags now accounting for half of its sales in its home market. In the year to January 28, sales rose by almost a third to £330m and profits rose 30% to £30m. Handbag sales also hit a record high of £91.6 million.