Row over Karen Millen name cost stores £1.9m
THE Karen Millen fashion store chain has spent £1.9 million on stopping its founder using her own name as a brand, it has emerged.
Its latest accounts show that revenues were flat at £159 million in the year to the end of February.
And its losses shrank to £8.7 million from £11.6 million the previous year. It would have been an even better performance but for the seven-figure hit it took in a long-running legal battle with the designer who built up the company into a high street favourite before selling it for £95 million in 2004.
She wanted to use her name to launch a home and lifestyle business in the US and China. But the High Court ruled that the rights to the Karen Millen brand belonged to the company, now owned by Icelandic bank Kaupthing.
Chief executive Beth Butterwick said it has been a ‘year of change’ – with continued investment in the business, particularly online, and a review of the store portfolio helping to reduce the losses. ‘We stabilised the business to prepare the ground for a return to profitable growth,’ said Butterwick who joined the company last year after a management buyout plan was dropped.
She added that more than half of the chain’s revenues come from overseas – it has stores in more than 65 countries – putting it in a favourable position to weather ‘challenging market conditions’ in the UK.
She said the retailer was ‘revitalised’ and looking to the future ‘with confidence.’
But the firm warned that the Brexit vote has created an environment of increased uncertainty and there are signs this has started to dent consumer confidence.