Next plc
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Formerly called
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Joseph Hepworth & Son (1864-1982) |
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| Public limited company | |
| Traded as | : |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1864 Leeds |
| Founder | Joseph Hepworth |
| Headquarters | Enderby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom |
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Number of locations
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circa 700 stores (2011) |
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Key people
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John Barton (Chairman) Simon Wolfson (Chief Executive) |
| Revenue | £3.999 billion (2015) |
| £812.1 million (2015) | |
| Profit | £634.9 million (2015) |
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Number of employees
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50,018 (2015) |
| Website | www |
Next (: ), styled as next, is a British multinational clothing, footwear and home products retailer headquartered in Enderby, Leicestershire. It has around 750 stores, of which 550 are in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and around 200 are in continental Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Next is the largest clothing retailer by sales in the United Kingdom, having overtaken Marks & Spencer in early 2012 and 2014. It is listed on the and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The company was founded by Joseph Hepworth in Leeds in 1864 as a tailor under the name of Joseph Hepworth & Son. Initially Hepworth was in partnership with James Rhodes, but the partnership was dissolved in 1872.
On his own, Hepworth expanded the company rapidly, becoming a pioneer for the development of chain stores in Britain. By 1884 the company had 100 outlets.
For much of its history Hepworth's was predominantly in the ready-to-wear suit market, and in 1963 the company brought in the celebrated Saville Row designer Hardy Amies to help revitalise its ready-to-wear suit collection.
In 1981 the company bought womenswear retailer Kendall and Sons for £1.75 million from the retail conglomerate Combined English Stores. This gave Hepworth's over 600 shops in British high streets.
The intention was to redevelop Kendall's stores as a womenswear chain of shops to complement Hepworth's as a chain of menswear stores. Terence Conran, the designer, was Chairman of Hepworth's at this time and he recruited George Davies to work at Kendall's. However Davies's concept was to create a new chain, called Next, initially by converting Kendall's stores. The first Next shops opened on 12 February 1982, with the Kendall's conversion complete by the end of 1983.
Made chief executive in 1984, Davies then converted 50 Hepworths stores to the Next format, extending the total concept look at the same time to cover menswear. This allowed the development of mini department stores across the entire footprint, selling women's and men's clothes. This was added to by the introduction of Next interiors to stores which were deemed in the "right demographical areas." In 1986, Davies moved the group's headquarters from Leeds to Leicester, to be closer to the main garment manufacturers, and the company name was changed to Next plc.
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Wikipedia