Analysis: Will Ted Baker’s new ‘growth formula’ put it back in fashion?
After enduring a torrid 2019 marred by numerous profit warnings and seismic change at management level, Ted Baker has unveiled a new strategy designed to take the business forward. Retail Week analyses whether it will be enough to return the fashion brand to its former glories
Last year was the proverbial annus horribilis for Ted Baker. The one-time stock market darling had started 2019 with a bullish Christmas trading update and soaring retail revenues. However, by the year’s end, founder Ray Kelvin, his successor as chief executive Lindsay Page and chair David Bernstein would all be gone, while a string of profit warnings left the retailer on the brink of unravelling.
New chief executive Rachel Osborne, who took the reins in November, has spent her first eight months as CEO rebuilding a shattered senior leadership team and completing the sale and leaseback of Ted Baker’s Kings Cross headquarters, The Ugly Brown Building, in a bid to put the business back on a firmer footing.
On Monday morning, Osborne revealed the next phase of those plans. Ted Baker plans to raise £95m through the sale of new shares, which will help the fashion retailer fund its new three-point strategic plan called ‘Ted’s Growth Formula’.
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