TopShop
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry |
Retail Fashion |
| Predecessor |
Peter Robinson's Top Shop Top Shop |
| Founded | 1964 (Sheffield) |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
|
Number of locations
|
over 500 shops across 40 countries |
|
Key people
|
Ian Grabiner (CEO) Mary Homer (Managing director) |
| Products |
Clothing Shoes Accessories Cosmetics |
| Owner |
Arcadia Group (75%) Leonard Green and Partners (25%) |
| Parent | Arcadia Group |
| Website | www |
Topshop (originally Top Shop) is a British multinational fashion retailer of clothing, shoes, make-up and accessories. It has around 500 shops worldwide – of which some 300 are in the UK – plus online operations in a number of its markets. Its current CEO is Ian Grabiner; and is part of the Arcadia Group, which is controlled by Sir Philip Green.
Topshop started as a brand extension of the department store Peter Robinson in the 1960s and originally sold fashion by young British designers, such as Mary Quant and Stirling Cooper. Peter Robinson was a women's fashion chain that had been acquired by Burton in 1946. Topshop was founded in 1964 as Peter Robinson's Top Shop, a youth brand within the Sheffield branch and also had a large department in the Oxford Street store. This was high fashion for the "young and different generation" as The Times put it in 1965, and the department stocked garments by names such as Mary Quant and Gerald McCann. By 1966, it had a branch in the Peter Robinson store in Norwich.
Peter Robinson's Top Shop buyer Diane Wadey had an eye for young talent and introduced Royal College of Art graduate Jane Whiteside to Jeff Cooper and Ronnie Stirling – the Stirling Cooper brand they created soon had its own sections in Top Shop stores in London and Sheffield, as well as being stocked in Peter Robinson stores in Norwich and Bristol. Other brands stocked at Top Shop included Jeff Banks, French Connection and Radley Cooper.
In 1973, parent company Burton Group launched a major expansion of its womenswear division, splitting Top Shop by Peter Robinson into two chains to be known as Peter Robinson and Top Shop. It was announced that while Peter Robinson would target the over 25s market, Top Shop would focus on the age range from 13 to 24, with Ralph Halpern directing the new venture. By 1974, Peter Robinson had been reduced from 22 stores to six, while Top Shop was developing independently (still retaining the one co-branded store in Oxford Street) and was described as "highly profitable". Its key retail rivals included Miss Selfridge and the Way In boutique arm of Harrods. Within two years, Top Shop had 55 standalone branches, with more to come according to an article in The Times. Fashion editor Prudence Glynn described it as having a: "sharp definition of purpose". It made profits of £1m that year. By 1978, Top Shop accounted for a third of Burton's operating profits.
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Wikipedia