When Catherine Middleton wore a white Reiss dress to mark her official engagement to Prince William in 2011, she unwittingly helped to set the company on course to sell its fashion to the world. This year, it opened stores in Toronto, Hong Kong and Germany. Forty international shops and concessions will follow in 2016, including two in New York.
Two are pencilled in for Melbourne, where, David Reiss, the company’s founder, says, “it’s incredible how they all know the brand. We are quite an understated brand, we don’t heavily promote ourselves, but everybody knows the name. It’s extraordinary — the Kate effect.”
Mr Reiss founded the company in 1971, taking over his father’s tailoring business on the corner of Bishopsgate and Petticoat Lane in the City of London when he was in his twenties. The menswear business had been built on classic tailoring, which remains “the backbone of the business”, but Mr Reiss wanted to introduce a modern twist. “I was into very sharp suits. I had this Crombie overcoat and sharp tonic suits and mohair suits, with ties and pocket handkerchiefs. I immediately transformed it from being a traditional menswear shop.”
The company grew steadily, opening three more stores in the City before venturing further afield. A watershed was opening a shop on the King’s Road in Chelsea in 1980. “At two o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, we were so busy that you couldn’t get through the door. That really put us on the map.”
He quickly spotted a similar opportunity in the women’s market. “There were so many girlfriends and wives coming into the stores with their husbands or boyfriends who said: ‘Why don’t you do womenswear?’ There was an opportunity for a female equivalent to what we were doing in menswear, which was timeless pieces and luxury tailoring — not being faddy or slaves to fashion, but creating clothes that people wanted to wear.”
Advertisement
Recent international growth has brought its challenges. In the year to January 2013, the business made a pre-tax loss of £6.2 million. The reason? Bad advice, Mr Reiss believes. “Because there’s been such a big expansion programme over the last few years, the people around me felt it right to bring a beefier infrastructure in place. Something I’ve always been proud of is having a tight team around me and everybody being very hands-on and passionate about what we’re doing.”
He says he should have stuck to his guns. “All of a sudden, there was no more stock movement. If stock’s selling out in Richmond, but it’s not selling in Kingston, historically we’d move the stock. But this new mid-management team decided to put an end to that. Absolute disaster.
“It was a shock to the system, because it was the first time for years and years that the profits took a backwards step. But in a way it’s the best thing that’s happened because it was a jolt. In fact, in every single area of the business, we said let’s go leaner and meaner. We saved about £2 million on our central overheads.”
Annual results published yesterday suggest that the turnaround plan is working. Reiss recorded its best sales figures, with turnover up 10 per cent from £116 million in 2014 to £128 million in 2015 and earnings doubled to £20 million.
Now that he’s righted the ship, Mr Reiss, 72, has no intention to abandon the helm just yet. “I’m not going away. I love what I do. My name is above the door, so I really am stimulated by the way the business has expanded — and you get an enormous sense of satisfaction when things turn out well.”