M& S starts a fashion showdown with rivals

MARKS & SPENCER is to launch a host of new clothing labels as it heads for a showdown with fashion rivals Next, Asos and Boohoo.

In a bold strategy to draw a line under a decade of stagnant clothing sales, M&S will begin adding new brands to its website from this Thursday – starting with an exclusive r ange f r om Finery London, owned by Dragon’s Den star Touker Suleyman.

A succession of other labels – including Joules, Phase Eight, Hobbs, Seasalt, Ghost and Jaeger – will appear on the M&S website from next month and in stores when they reopen from April.

The new push is being talked about in the fashion industry as the biggest overhaul of M&S clothing for 20 years. The high street stalwart hopes it can tempt both its existing customers and new ones to spend more money on its fashion lines as well as in its food halls.

M&S faces intense competition from its closest rival Next, whose online Directory business has grown at an astonishing rate and sells other brands such as Adidas, Mint Velvet and Ted Baker.

Marks remains the biggest womenswear retailer in the country but it has been blindsided by online competitors including Asos, which sells hundreds of other brands and has turned itself into a one-stop shop for youngsters.

Asos will tomorrow relaunch Topshop on its website after snapping up the brand just three weeks ago, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Other online firms biting at the heels of M&S include Boohoo which has hoovered up struggling fashion labels – including many direct rivals to M&S, such as Warehouse, Coast, Karen Millen and more recently Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Debenhams.

Mr Suleyman, who has supplied M&S own-label clothing ranges for more than 20 years, said: ‘M&S is becoming more commercial, agile and more open-minded.

‘ I’ve already seen the changes happening at M&S and I feel very bullish about where they are now.

‘They were dipping their toe in the water [selling third party fashion brands] last year and now they’ve got a platform ready, a database to work from and a list of brands to launch.’

Mr Suleyman also runs the Ghost brand, which will launch a separate collaboration with M&S later this year. He recently took control of Finery London and has cleared old stock in recent weeks ready for a relaunch of the business on its own website today.

A separate range of products under the Finery London label has been produced specifically for the M&S website.

The latest moves by M&S form part of wider plans to bring the firm’s strategy up t o date. It launched an online delivery service with Ocado in September. Then last month it agreed a deal to buy women’s fashion label Jaeger after the talks were first revealed by The Mail on Sunday.

‘More open-minded with a list of brands to launch’