Fat Face Ltd. - Introduction

Introduction

P.O. Box 1
Havant
PO9 2UA
United Kingdom
Telephone: (+44) 870 6000 090
Fax: (+44) 23 9248 5550
Web site: http://www.fatface.com

Private Company
Incorporated: 1968
Employees: 500
Sales: £45 million ($60 million) (2003)
NAIC: 448150 Clothing Accessories Stores; 315228 Men's and Boys' Cut and Sew Other Outerwear Manufacturing; 315999 Other Apparel Accessories and Other Apparel Manufacturing; 339920 Sporting and Athletic Good Manufacturing

Fat Face Ltd. is one of the United Kingdom's fastest-growing retail sportswear companies. Targeting the active lifestyle, outdoor sports enthusiast, Fat Face produces a full range of functional sportswear fashions, including clothing and outerwear and related accessories. Fat Face traditionally targets the complementary skiing/snowboard and surfing/windsurfing and sailing markets as well as enthusiasts of mountain biking, hang gliding, tennis, and other sports. This strategy enables the company to build steady sales year round. Fat Face has long resisted distributing its products through traditional third-party wholesale and retail channels, preferring to maintain tight control of its retail sales—and brand image. Since 1993, the company has built up an extensive network of retail shops through the United Kingdom and Ireland, with more than 80 shops in operation at the end of 2004. The company also operates four shops in the French Alps ski resort region and has plans to boost its total network of shops to more than 150 at mid-decade. While founders Jules Leaver and Tim Slade retain 60 percent control of the company (the remaining is held by investment group Isis), Fat Face is preparing to launch a public offering, perhaps as early as 2005. As part of that process, the company has boosted its management with the 2003 appointment of Louise Barnes, formerly with Monsoon, as CEO, and Stephen Sunnucks, former CEO of retail rival New Look, as non-executive director in 2004. Fat Face's revenues, growing at an average of 50 percent annually since the mid-1990s, topped £45 million ($60 million) in 2004.