Retail Week spoke to Percival founder and creative director Chris Gove about the menswear retailer’s international expansion plans and growing from a single London pop up to a potentially global store estate
London-based menswear fashion retailer Percival, which was founded in 2009, prides itself on combining a “quintessentially British sense of understated style and rare, internationally sourced fabrics and materials” across a range of clothing, shoes and accessories.
In 2022 Percival posted turnover of £10m, doubling sales year on year, while sales growth for 2023 is expected to continue.
As Percival embarks on its international growth strategy with a view to double sales figures, Gove sat down with Retail Week to discuss the challenges and opportunities of expanding – at home and abroad.
How have you dealt with the cost-of-living crisis?
“I didn’t know one business in the fourth quarter that didn’t overstock and undersell, and that’s meant this year that loads of people are on sale. We decided to do fewer sales than everyone else; I think all our pieces have been manufactured really well – they’re investment pieces.
“What we’ve been pushing is the idea that you need to buy one thing and look after it and then you won’t need to buy loads of stuff. I think it’s quite difficult because everyone expects things to be cheap, less aspirational brands are so cheap and it creates this price dysmorphia.
“People think things should be cheap, but they can be made so badly and it’s so bad for the environment. If everyone started manufacturing with a bit of responsibility, then it would all be cheaper, but there is a lot of fast fashion that drives a strange mentality. With the cost of living, we saw a drop-off in the latter half of last year but it’s been really strong this year.”
What’s in the pipeline following your recent board reshuffle?
“We got investment in 2018, so are contractually tied to quite a specific journey. They expect an exit in five or six years and we have to triple each year, so I have those targets and it’s up to me how to do that. It’s more about how I grow internationally.
“Growing up in the UK, 70% of our audience are from London and operating here, with our local community, is second nature to the team and to myself.
“When it comes to growing internationally, which is the next natural step, it’s something I’ve never done. That’s when it’s time to bring in people who have done it, who have seen that kind of stuff. Cheryl Calegari who just joined was at Beats and Converse, Dan Rookwood has been at Mr Porter and Nike in Portland, so they are just people who have a great experience.
“I think around 30% of our audience is US based and that’s just happened organically, so we’ve decided that is the next place to try and grow, simply because that’s where the audience seems to be for us.”
Is this international expansion behind you growing your product categories?
“Our product categories aren’t going to change. We are just adding more because as we grow we’re going to need more product categories. Our suiting seems to be working really well and the knit polo that we started bringing in over the summer about four or five years ago – those kinds of categories seem to be ubiquitous with the demographic that we’re trying to grow with.
“In America 15% of our audience is in Los Angeles and 15% is in New York, but you can’t concentrate on all of it. New York makes sense because seasonally it’s the same, whereas with LA I don’t know how I’d manage that yet.
“We have quite an interesting audience pool in Australia, but the weather is completely different, so we are going for places that at least match our seasons at the minute.
“Europe’s a funny one. Initially, a fifth of our audience was from France, mainly Paris. There’s an aesthetic affinity with the audience, but I’ve done a lot of research into it and the French demographic would like to have a website in French. It’s just another thing to try and implement.”
How is the London store performing and are there plans for more?
“The store in Soho was a pop up and we only just got the full-term lease, so we are about to re-do all the interiors of it, but it’s done really well. It has grown and grown. I think the location is good and now it just needs to look nicer inside.
“It has had some really good days coming back from Covid. We opened it just after the pandemic when it was quite quiet in town, and we thought everyone was going to work from home forever and no one was going to wear suits again, but it’s all just come back.
“We are looking at more stores now; we are also looking at locations. It could be another London one, or it could be Edinburgh or Manchester.
“We did a pop-up tour last year in Manchester, Margate and Glasgow, and tested a bunch of areas. The next pop up is in New York in September, so we will see how it goes and what the reaction is.”
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