A leading outdoor clothing chain is opening online in China in time for the world’s biggest shopping day after a record first half of the year.
Mountain Warehouse, which was founded by Mark Neale in 1997, boosted sales by 24.7 per cent to a record £59.3 million while pre-tax profits rose by 31 per cent to £4.3 million in the six months to August 30.
Mr Neale, who is the chief executive and owns 80 per cent of the business after leading a management buyout in 2013, said the growth was “more than expected” and was helped by the popularity of their cycling line and children’s range.
Having travelled to China for the past decade to source Mountain Warehouse’s clothing and equipment, he said he had identified a “growing middle class who want to do similar stuff to us in the UK and a lot of people enjoy the outdoors”.
The company will open on T-Mall, a Chinese retail website operated by the Alibaba group, after being in discussions over the proposal for the past year.
Advertisement
The launch is in time for Singles Day on November 11, when online retailers slash prices. Chinese customers spent £6 billion in 24 hours last year.
Almost 20 per cent of Mountain Warehouse’s sales were online and the same proportion was exported to Australia, the US and Germany. Online sales rose by 41.3 per cent in the first half.
However, Mr Neale said he remained focused on the high street. He said the turning point came in 2007 when the label was becoming better known and the slump in property prices allowed it to buy stores in key areas such as Keswick in the Lake District.
While it took ten years to build the chain up to 30 stores, the company had 100 by 2010 and now runs more than 200 outlets, employing more than 1,500 people.
Mr Neale said Mountain Warehouse was just days away from launching a German language website. “I think Germany is going to be quite important to us,” he added.