Boden founder, Johnnie Boden, has promised to revamp the business after admitting to a “catalogue of mistakes” that pushed the fashion retailer to a significant loss.
Boden referred to himself as a “complete nitwit” in an interview with The Times for making the company too trendy while ignoring its core clientele.
The fashion shop will resuscitate its renowned catalogue and close its underperforming menswear segment as part of the makeover, which will correspond with its next Autumn/Winter 23 collection. Additionally, Boden will apologise via emails to clients.
It comes after the fashion retailer plunged to a £ 4.4 million loss last year, compared to a profit of £ 22 million in 2021. Sales slipped 2 per cent to £ 350 million in the period, with customer numbers also down 5 per cent to 1.8 million.
Boden said, “We forgot who we were. We changed the product too much. We went a bit too young and we upset lots of customers.” He admitted that cutting back on the retailer’s much-loved catalogue had also been a fatal error, saying, “We knew we had to cut back distribution because digital was the future, but we cut back too much.”
