What does it take to stay the course as a multi-brand fashion retailer? The sector has consolidated over the past couple of years, with several large players pulled back from the brink of collapse or — in the case of Matches — closing down. Against this backdrop, British company End stands out as a rare example of a retailer that has stayed the course, despite some ups and downs.
End was founded in Newcastle, England, in 2005 by Christiaan Ashworth and John Parker, who shared a vision for a retail proposition that combined fashion, design, art and music. Over the past two decades, it has evolved into one of the UK’s most influential multi-brand retailers, renowned for its sharp curation and deep-rooted connection to sneaker and street culture. It carries an eclectic mix of brands, from Represent to Rick Owens. Collaborations are a big part of the offer: End has a long-standing partnership with Adidas, for example, which has resulted in a number of exclusive sneaker releases, including the recent ‘Tying the Knot’ capsule collection.
The retailer has flagship stores in London, Milan, Newcastle, Glasgow and Manchester, and its website attracts over 10 million unique visitors per month. The stores act as community hubs: at the end of March, Puma teamed up with designer and rare Puma archivist George Roberts to host a footwear design workshop in End’s London store; while the Manchester store partnered with Adidas on a running event.
End has not been immune to the challenges in retail, and, over the past few years — as it expanded — its balance sheet suffered. Last October, the company was sold by owner The Carlyle Group to private equity firm Apollo for an undisclosed sum, in a deal that recapitalised the business, helping to reduce its debt.
Today, End kicks off a year-long celebration of its 20th anniversary, which will includes a series of events, activations, collaborations and exclusive, limited-edition releases co-created with long-standing brand partners. The celebrations will focus on three different themes of Britishness — the British seaside, the corner shop and the pub — with relevant collaborations tied to each.
Here, CEO Parker Gundersen — a former LVMH exec who joined End in 2022 — reflects on what makes the company unique, the upheaval in multi-brand fashion retail and what’s next.
Vogue: It’s been a tough few years for multi-brand retail, which makes it all the more impressive that End has reached its 20-year anniversary. What sets it apart?
Product really is at the core of End. No matter where you work in the company — buying, marketing, in the stores, in the warehouse, in our finance team — you have to love the products that we’re selling. It’s so important to keep the business focused on the community and culture that we serve. One of the unique parts about our business is that we have this in-house team that is 100 per cent dedicated to conceptualising collaborations and creative ventures with our brand partners. I am always amazed at what they think of. If you look at our 20th-anniversary celebrations, we’ve got a long line-up of some great projects, including partnerships with [Japanese brand] Needles, Y-3 [the collaborative project between Adidas and designer Yohji Yamamoto], Salomon, Crocs and [Japanese label] And Wander.
Vogue: Why are the anniversary celebrations so focused on End’s British heritage?
When we opened in Milan a couple of years ago, we weren’t sure how much we’d have to adapt the brand to the local market. But one of the things that was so clear from all the customers that came in is they’re really looking for that Britishness. So we decided to lean on that over the last couple of years and focus on it for the 20th anniversary. It’s something local people here in the UK are very proud about, but I think globally it resonates well.
Vogue: What impact did the change in ownership last October have in terms of the direction of the business and its culture?
We needed to shore up our balance sheet, so it has been a huge weight off my shoulders. It’s a weight off the team’s shoulders. We now have the ability to move ahead. Who bought us is also important because I think Apollo has a strong belief in the End brand. That was very important for me in bringing on investors. We’ve got a very special thing here. I wanted people who recognise that.
We’ve spent the last two years reshaping the business in a significant way. It took off so fast in the early days, and it was very hard to catch up with the operations. The market has been more challenging the last few years, and it’s been a good time to step back and reinforce all of the stuff behind the scenes, and get ourselves into a healthy position.
We’ve gone back to a really sharp focus on curation. We’ve paused a lot of brands that just weren’t really working. The focus for us this year is building new capabilities that enhance the customer experience. Now we can work on our online platform, we can start to reinvest in the stores.
Vogue: Are you planning to grow your retail footprint?
Milan was such an eye-opener of what the potential is and how much the market wanted it. So I think we will open another physical statement, but we need to find the right location. We are actively out looking. We won’t open a lot of stores though — the amount of work that went into opening Milan… you can’t do a thousand of those. When people walk into an End, I want them to be like, ‘This is totally worth going to.’ We’re just going to take it one at a time, like a boutique hotel or a special restaurant. You don’t want to mess that formula up by saturating the market.
Vogue: Is the role of the stores changing?
There’s always something interesting going on in the stores, but they’re also commercially very successful. I love the idea of a showroom concept, but I don’t think you’re going to have a very sustainable long-term model if it’s just a showroom; it’s expensive. So we are a proper bricks-and-mortar store in that way. We expect the store to do a certain amount of sales.
When one of our stores does well, by and large, it’s because it has a super engaged team. You walk around on the high street and it’s very hard to get great service. Few retailers are doing it well because they don’t have the time or resources, or the purpose behind it. We spend a lot of time with the team on hiring, on creating a vibe. If people come in and they don’t get a good experience from End, they’re never coming back. Why would you? That’s something we want to keep focusing on. So much of what we need to do to stay successful is just continue to focus on the core of what End has been for 20 years and has made us successful.
Vogue: What trends are you excited about right now?
The outdoor space continues to do really well. What I like about that space is that customers really appreciate the performance element, but they’re looking for style. They may not always wear it on the mountain or in whatever environment the product was originally created for, instead they’re styling it in such a way that it’s perfect for the city and you can wear it at night. That blends into active, which is another really big opportunity. It’s taking high-performance specialty product, but doing it in a very fashionable way. It’s exciting to see how the brands are leaning into the performance element and we’re seeing innovation from a lot of the top sportswear players, but also a lot of niche players that are coming in.
Vogue: What about in fashion? We’ve been through this quiet luxury phase, what’s next?
It’s been tough, right? There just hasn’t been a lot to get super excited about. Personally, when I look at what’s coming in the next few seasons, I think brands are starting to take chances again. I think for a long time they relied on past silhouettes that were working well or just sort of the go-tos and they oversaturated. That’s where a lot of brands got away from themselves and lost some of that special element of it. And then we went through this tough phase where everybody’s resetting. What I see coming up now is in some ways directional, but yet somewhat commercial. I think the customer has an appetite to take a bit more of a risk now, too.
Vogue: How does an emerging brand get into End?
First and foremost, we look for a credible story behind the brand, as well as a credible person or team. We spend a lot of time in the market and it’s not just going to shows, it’s not just meeting our existing brands — we spend time in and around fashion weeks, and throughout the year we’re in places like Japan, on the ground, understanding what’s going on in music and design as well as fashion. There are a lot of fast followers, but we look for that real authentic leader.
It works both ways. While we are in many ways a benefactor of the brands and how much heat they have, and obviously we sell other brands’ products, if we don’t work on our brand, if we don’t build our own capabilities to really stand out, we’re not going to get access to that unique product. So that’s really the focus this year.
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