Beckham's fashion label loses again

Continued turmoil for Victoria Beckham fashion

4th December 2019

Victoria Beckham's fashion brand has posted its tenth consecutive annual loss, blaming a weak wholesale market and a plateau in demand for high end fashion.

The company, Victoria Beckham Limited, has filed 2018 accounts reporting a £12.3m loss, continuing an unbroken run of losses since its launch in 2008. Its annual report told a tale of mixed fortunes. Double figure increases in UK wholesale revenues were offset by falling demand in international markets and a struggling department store segment, which lead to a 16 per cent drop in sales.

Concern for the health of the firm has led Victoria to explicitly state that it was "not a vanity project".

Speaking to the Financial Times in March, she affirmed her desire for the brand to exist long into the future, explaining that to achieve that ambition, "I need to break even, and then I need to be profitable."

Chairman Ralph Tolendo said the results were "in line with expectations," after several years of growth in clothing and accessories sales had levelled off. The account filing reported on an optimistic business that was being recalibrated through a series of cost cutting. There would be a focus on digital channels and a refinement of the product offering "to more closely reflect Victoria Beckham's aesthetics and values."

Mrs Beckham controls the business with her husband and former Manchester United star David Beckham, via their company Beckham Brand Holdings.

Losses at Mrs Beckham's label helped push Beckham Brand Holdings to its first ever net loss of £1.6m in 2018, which followed a net profit of £12.3m in the previous year.

But it's not all woe: Victoria and David were ranked 372 on this year's Sunday Times Rich List, with a combined wealth of some £355 million and were named among Britain's 50 biggest taxpayers in The Sunday Times Tax List.