Cherokee Inc.’s Cherokee brand has a new partner in the U.K. and Ireland after ending its 14-year association with Tesco late last year.
The company has licensed the Argos subsidiary of Home Retail Group plc to carry Cherokee brand apparel online and in its 750 stores in the U.K. and Ireland beginning in fall 2015.
Argos is a leading U.K. digital retailer, carrying about 50,000 products through www.argos.co.uk, various mobile channels, catalogues and stores.
The company logged 123 million transactions through its stores and 738 million visits to its Web site and mobile apps in the year ended February 2014. In the year, Argos had revenues of about 4.1 billion pounds, or $6.43 billion at average exchange, and Home Retail Group’s sales totaled 5.7 billion pounds, or $8.94 billion.
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“The U.K. leads many global markets in terms of online apparel purchases versus traditional brick-and-mortar outlets, with roughly five to six times more apparel purchases per capital conducted online in the U.K. versus the U.S., affording us a much expanded consumer reach,” said Henry Stupp, chief executive officer of Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based Cherokee.
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David Robinson, chief operating officer of Argos, noted, “One of the strategies in our transformation program is to broaden our product ranges and bring on board more great brands which our customers know and want. Cherokee is already a well-established clothing brand with U.K. shoppers, and we are pleased to be able to offer our customers convenient, nationwide access to a range of quality Cherokee products later this year.”
Cherokee in October terminated its license with Tesco, which covered the U.K., Ireland and a number of markets in Central Europe, and said it was in “advanced negotiations” with a prospective licensee in the U.K. and Ireland. Stupp said that the firm had concluded that challenges faced by
Tesco in its home market “will continue to impede our progress, and after several years and failed attempts to satisfy the U.K. consumer’s appetite for Cherokee branded products, it was simply time to move on.”
Stupp added that Tesco accounted for 40 percent of its revenues five years ago.