Moss Bros plans new stores rollout, dives deeper into casualwear

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 5, 2022

Moss Bros is planning to open up to 12 new stores in the next year and is in talks with landlords about new locations.

It’s part of an omnichannel approach that has also seen it ramping up its e-commerce to overcome the various restrictions of the past two years as well as making the most of changed consumer behaviour.

And it’s extending the reach of its offer to more consumers with marketplaces playing “an integral part”. It now retails on both Next and John Lewis, “with encouraging results on both platforms”.

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But the firm is still heavily focused on physical stores with those plans to open more new spaces.

It has identified a pipeline of up to 10 new stores over the next 12 months and is “actively negotiating with Landlords” on these.

This comes as it said consumer research showed that its customers want physical stores backed up with a strong e-commerce offering. In May last year, it opened a new 4,600 sq ft flagship concept store on London’s Oxford Street and it said this week that the store is “performing well”. 

Last month it opened another new store in Woking, Surrey. This is “a fresh concept for us,” CEO Brian Brick said, “showcasing the best of our ready-to-wear offering, our hire selection, and our custom-made options and complemented by a casualwear offer”.

Brick added that Moss Bros has been transforming itself product-wise post-pandemic. Although the transformation actually started pre-Covid, the lockdown period “provided an opportunity to reflect and refocus on the changing needs of the consumer in preparation for the lifting of restrictions. At the same time ensuring a resilient and relevant menswear business that continues to meet the needs our existing customer – in turn attracting new ones who hadn’t considered, or discounted Moss Bros in the past”.

Its research showed that coming out of lockdown consumers were “looking for more versatility when it came to their wardrobe. This represented a mixing of formalwear and casual stylish solutions”.  

This has included a deep dive into casualwear. It's a big move for the firm that’s almost synonymous with formal menswear and echoes the transformation being seen at Hugo Boss where the company, known for its suits, is now being led by casualwear.

Brian Brick said: “We have reimagined the product offering for the way our customers are living today. Over the course of the last two years we have seen consumer behavioural changes like never before. The key to our success as a business has been the ability to remain agile and meet the evolving wants and needs of our menswear audience”.

Not that it has abandoned its formalwear proposition with Brick also adding that he was “never in doubt that people would welcome the opportunity to dress up again with the opening of events, as well as weddings”.

So the company has launched a casualwear offer that focuses on separates that can be worn by themselves or mixed and matched with formalwear when necessary.

It also linked up with First Dates star Fred Sirieix for Fred x Moss Bros curated edits that “epitomise the post-Covid changing of styles and illustrates how to blend formal and casualwear to get an ‘elevated look’.”