The Dealmakers

Christos Angelides
Chief executive, Reiss 

Reiss boss Christos Angelides led the retailer through the pandemic lull and onwards to securing record sales and profits, through a series of partnerships and investments.

Angelides’ strategy has bolstered the London fashion brand's presence in international markets such as the US where he has overseen several partnerships, including standalone shops and new concessions with department stores Bloomingdale’s, Saks and Nordstrom. As a result, Reiss’ US store estate has grown to almost 50 locations.

Online sales account for half of Reiss’ trade and so Angelides armed the brand with a suite of digital improvements to take full advantage of the rebounding of occasionwear after the pandemic, including a new iOS app and an expanded range of third-party brands on its site.

Group sales during its 2021 financial year (to January 2022) rose 50.3% year on year to £256.6m, while pre-tax profits after exceptional items came in at £34.4m, from a loss of £13.6m the previous year.

Angelides has built on a successful partnership with Next. The retailer upped its stake in Reiss from 51% to 72% in September 2023, and with Next now the majority owner and a more simplified leadership structure in place as a result, it is a pivotal moment for Angelides to build on his strategy and draw on Next’s retail prowess.

Mike Ashley
Founder,
Frasers Group

Mike Ashley may have stood down last year from the iconic brand he created in 1982, but his influence over Frasers remains large.

Ashley handed over the day-to-day running of Frasers Group – owner of brands including House of Fraser, Flannels and French Connection – to son-in-law and chief executive Michael Murray last October, while remaining as the brand’s controlling shareholder with a 69.1% stake.

However, in June 2023, Frasers made a deal with Ashley to be formally appointed as a consultant to the fashion giant on an unpaid basis. In his new role, Ashley is reportedly advising Frasers on supply chain and operational matters. His input in these areas is crucial as the group continues its acquisition streak.

In March, the Frasers empire completed the acquisition of 14 brands from JD Sports in a deal worth £50m, snapping up names including Topgrade Sportswear and Get The Label. In June, Frasers acquired a 5% stake in online fashion retailer Boohoo, an 8.9% stake in electricals retailer Currys, and snapped up a £75m stake in AO World. In August it increased its stake in Asos to nearly 20%, making Frasers the online fashion retailer’s third-largest shareholder.

Mohsin and
Zuber Issa
Co-owners of Asda, and co-founders and co-chief executives at EG Group 

Brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa were behind one of retail’s biggest deals of 2023 when, in May, Asda acquired petrol forecourt empire EG Group’s UK and Ireland operations for £2.27bn.

A move the Issas say will create a “new value-led consumer champion”, the deal comes as Asda has created clear daylight between its once nearest market share rival Morrisons and is keeping Aldi at bay in fourth position.

Notable dealmakers, the Issas have pushed ahead in growing their convenience business with the £600m purchase of 129 former Co-op forecourts in October 2022.

In early 2022 they commenced a year-long partnership with self-driving car AI developer Wayve to initiate Britain’s biggest autonomous grocery home-delivery trial and, in May this year, the Issas extended their partnership with Deliveroo, opening a new rapid delivery Hop site in Tottenham Hale, North London, offering more than 1,300 products deliverable in 15 minutes.

The Issas are navigating challenges, however. In July Mohsin’s responses to a parliamentary committee over its fuel pricing and employment practices were noted as “detrimental” to the brand and an equal pay battle with staff is rumbling on that could result in a £1.2bn staff payout.

Damian McGloughlin
Chief executive, Homebase 

In a crowded home and DIY market that has struggled with strong, pandemic comparatives and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, Damian McGloughlin has continued his strategy of collaborating with third-party brands. This includes garden centres within Next stores and a 10-year deal with THG Ingenuity platform Elysium, to optimise Homebase's customer experience on site and deliver new features, such as makeover inspiration and ‘shop the look’ content.

McGloughlin spearheaded two further deals last year: one with Tesco in March for store-in-store concessions; and the other with electricals retailer AO in August – through which Homebase supplies, installs and recycles appliances and audio-visual equipment purchased exclusively from AO – for an initial five-year term, with the possibility of it being extended.

McGloughlin, who started his career on the shopfloor at rival B&Q, understands the future of the home retail market is a balance of channels, and that partnership deals – with each working to their strengths – can help retailers achieve the best customer offer. 

Matt Moulding
Founder and chief executive, THG 

After becoming somewhat bogged down in late 2021 and much of 2022 with a battle against his own investors, Matt Moulding has been getting back to doing what he does best – retailing and innovating.

Along with strong trading momentum, Moulding has been looking to external partnerships and acquisitions to drive his business forward. In April, THG struck a 10-year strategic partnership with beauty ecommerce retailer Maximo Group, which owns sites such as allbeauty.com and fragrancedirect.co.uk.

In July, in a move that extends THG into the media space, Moulding snapped up London-based business newspaper City AM in a last-minute deal. Moulding intends to use the paper to help THG reach a new audience and build on its “digital media expertise”.

Having struggled post-IPO, THG has since recovered by delivering record sales and rising profit expectations, including topping £2bn of revenues in a quarter for the first time. Moulding has also upped his own share after SoftBank offloaded its stake – once worth £500m – for £31m in October 2022 and in July sold his OnDemand division to management to raise £4m.

Moulding and THG are getting back to slightly steadier ground; group revenues increased 2.7% to £2.2bn in 2022. Losses have risen however with adjusted EBTIDA of £64m.

José Neves
Chief executive and founder, Farfetch 

José Neves has spent another year driving innovation in luxury as boss of Farfetch.

His most recent deal, and arguably his most significant yet, was to take a 47.5% stake in Richemont-owned multi-brand ecommerce player Yoox-Net-A-Porter last August. Neves said the partnership was born out of his desire to unify the worlds of luxury and technology and was inspired by Richemont-owned Cartier’s interest in Farfetch’s technology, which it will now adopt, along with the other Richemont brands.

Neves has also made key changes to his executive team to drive transformation. In January this year he appointed new chief fashion and merchandising officer and chief executive of Browns Elizabeth von der Goltz, made former Klarna and Walmart’s Sindhura Sarikonda president of Americas, and appointed Stephanie Simon – among the founding team of meetings app Clubhouse – as vice-president of community and Web3.

The appointments form part of Neves’ strategy to deliver “growth, profitability and free cash flow” with Farfetch merchandise, differentiated shopping experiences and the metaverse among the opportunities Neves wants the three to pursue. He’ll be hoping the fruits of his labour start to pay off. In a trading update for the second quarter ending June 2023, Farfetch reported a 1.3% decrease in revenue to £450.1m compared with £455.7m reported for the same period last year.

Graham Stapleton
Chief executive, Halfords

Halfords continues to report solid performance under chief executive Graham Stapleton.

For the year to March 2023, his motoring and cycling specialist saw revenue growth of 15.3% to £1.59bn, compared with £1.38bn in 2022, with like-for-like sales increasing by 2.4%. Despite profit before tax falling to £51.5m, down £38.3m on last year, Stapleton has made savvy deals to support growth.

This includes leading on the purchase of automotive specialist Lodge Tyre in October 2022. The £37.2m deal extends Halfords’ services business to 656 garages, 253 consumer vans, 440 commercial vans and nine warehouses, and makes Halfords the UK’s largest business-to-business commercial tyre provider.

In April this year, he revealed plans to grow into further areas of the motoring market and be the one-stop shop for motoring ownership in the mid to long term, while in July he launched a buy now pay later offer to help customers cover costs of vehicle maintenance and repairs. Halfords’ Motoring Club loyalty scheme continues to bear fruit too – as of July, it has two million members.