LK Bennett founder returns to fashion brand to restore original vision

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
May 8, 2017

Linda Bennet, who founded premium fashion and footwear brand LK Bennett in 1990, has been drafted in by chief executive Darren Topp in a consultative capacity to help restore her original vision of “a little bit of Bond Street on the High Street”.

Bennett sold the business to Phoenix Equity Partners and Sirius Equity in 2008 for £100m. She remained on the board of the company as non-executive director and is now taking on a more active role to support the brand’s ongoing expansion.

According to the Telegraph, Bennett will be working one day a week alongside the brand’s design team to try and refocus the label amid a challenging UK retail market. The company is expected to report a dip in sales when it files its accounts at the end of May, but Topp has revealed that like-for-like sales are 7% higher in the latest year.

Shareholders have recently injected £5m of cash to support the retailer’s international growth strategy, which is expected to give a further boost to the business. A quarter of LK Bennett sales come from overseas, putting the brand at a distinct advantage over other British retailers as the domestic market stagnates.

LK Bennett opened its first store in Russia earlier in March, while further openings in China are scheduled for later this year. The brand plans to open 40 new boutiques over the year.