Mike Ashley eyes upmarket tailor Gieves & Hawkes

MIKE ASHLEY’S Frasers Group is close to agreeing a deal to buy Gieves & Hawkes, an ailing Savile Row tailor.

Frasers is in advanced talks to buy the brand after its Hong Kong-based owner collapsed into liquidation, according to Sky News.

Mr Ashley’s group has been considering the acquisition of Gieves & Hawkes, which was put up for sale earlier this year, since September. Its tailored labels date back to 1785 and 1771 respectively.

The current Gieves & Hawkes brand was formed in 1974 and has held royal warrants for the King as well as Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh. Its clients have included Sir Winston Churchill and Lord Nelson.

The brand has been part of Trinity Group, which is owned by the collapsed Shandong Ruyi Technology Group, since 2012. Since the pandemic many tailors on Savile Row have fallen on hard times as demand for suits slumped.

Frasers, where Mr Ashley remains the majority shareholder but is no longer a director, has been buying up high street brands such as Jack Willis, Evans Cycles and Agent Provocateur. The company, which owns Sports Direct and House of Fraser, bought the online fashion retailer Missguided for £20m in June. It recently considered buying Made.com after it collapsed into administration.

In October, Frasers Group seized on Asos’s falling share price to build a stake of more than 5pc in the online fashion retailer.

Mr Ashley, 58, who founded the company with a single store in Maidenhead in 1982, has described himself as “a bricks man, not a clicks man”. However, he has handed day-to-day management of the company to his son-in-law Michael Murray, 33, who as chief executive is overseeing online expansion.

Frasers Group is also part of a scrum for ownership of the Wasps rugby stadium in Coventry, as part of Mr Ashley’s plan to make the city his stronghold. Insiders previously said the company was intensifying efforts to acquire the 32,609-seat Coventry Building Society Arena, which filed notice of its intention to appoint administrators last month.

Frasers Group did not respond to a request for comment.