As outdoor specialist Mountain Warehouse bounces back into the black with record-high sales, chief executive Mark Neale talks to Retail Week about the climb ahead for the brand to reach its peak potential.
After a year in the red, Mountain Warehouse has bounced back as it posted a pre-tax profit of £26.2m and total sales of £386m in the 52 weeks to February 2024 – the highest in its trading history.
Founder and chief executive Mark Neale started the business with a single store in 1997. Today, the business has grown to more than 350 stores and 3,700 employees.
As the retailer enters the current trading year, it has a lot to look forward to, including 50 new stores, new international markets, and an expansion of its online marketplace. Here, Neale talks to Retail Week about what lies ahead.
What did you do differently in the last year to return Mountain Warehouse to profitability?
“I think that the previous couple of years had been really affected by things beyond our control, obviously the pandemic, and then the next year was all about freight problems with all the container costs and so on. And so this was really our first normal year where things were back to usual for us.
“We were really pleased to come up with record results, both for sales and for profit. I think our whole mantra of value for money, products for everyone, and the long-term approach that we take of incremental improvements in every area of the business, every season, has helped to pay off.”
What is the strategy behind the shift to bigger store spaces and retail park locations?
“I think it’s driven by choice, really. During Covid-19 when we only had the website for a while, we invested a lot in our range and expanded the range for the online customer. Then, as we came out of Covid, we thought, ‘Well, you know, we’ve got this bigger range online, but maybe we should present more in-store.’
“Our typical store, historically was maybe 2,500 sq ft. But now we were able to fill a shop that’s much bigger than that, at 10,000 sq ft or even 15,000 sq ft.
“It’s about the choice and the presentation of the product and making it a better shopping experience.
“And it’s not only retail parks but also bigger stores within the high street. So, for instance, take Truro in Cornwall: we’ve been there for over 10 years in a 3,000 sq ft shop. We’ve just taken over the former Wilko, which I think is now our biggest shop at approximately 17,000 sq ft; it’s in the town centre and it’s going really well.
“A couple of years ago we bought this brand called Animal, which is a beach type brand long established, but it had sort of lost its way. The bigger shops give us a lot more opportunities just to put that product in.”
What are your goals for Mountain Warehouse Marketplace?
“We’re actively looking for more people and more complementary brands. We’re trying to curate that so that it’s a meaningful experience for our customers.
“We’ve got a wide offer of our own, but there are plenty of products that we don’t really do. We only have a limited range of tents, for instance, so we can massively expand our offer in tents and camping from other more specialist brands in that area.
“The great thing about it is you might buy a tent from one of these brands that have bigger tents or better quality tents than we would typically do, and then they might buy their sleeping bags and mattresses from a Mountain Warehouse brand. And so you have a sort of mixed basket, which works for everyone.
“The brands seem to be happy coming onto the marketplace, we’re very happy to have them, and the customers seem to like it, which is the most important thing. It’s only been going for two years now, and it’s still relatively small, but it’s growing really quickly.”
Who do you identify as your biggest competitors in the space?
“It’s interesting that because our offer is very much an everyday offer. So if you think about our notional competitors, like North Face, Columbia, Patagonia, Snow+Rock and all those sorts of guys, they’ve all got a picture of a bloke with an ice axe hanging off a glacier. We don’t really have that. We have pictures of the family playing with the dog in the woods.
“So our competitive set is really quite diverse. You can buy a t-shirt from us that you could also buy in Marks & Spencer or Next or Primark, as well as any of the people who are traditionally in the outdoor sector, like Go Outdoors and Decathlon.
“I think we’ve been quite careful not to be too pigeonholed in a traditional outdoor market, and try and broaden it out as much as possible.”
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