N Brown a perfect fit for CEO Angela Spindler

N BROWN Group will be rolling-out its click and collect service this year, and accelerating growth plans in the US, chief executive Angela Spindler says.

Six months in to her stint at the helm of the listed multi-channel retailer, which specialises in serving the plus-size market,  Mrs Spindler says she is “loving her new challenge”, and is passionate about the business and the opportunities for growth.

Born in Chester and currently living in Yorkshire – she jokes that this job- is something of a homecoming.

Her earlier career saw her hold senior positions with Debenhams and Asda before she joined Burnley-based, private equity-backed discount stores chain The Original Factory Shop, a move she says set her in good stead for her current role.

Pondering how life has changed since taking the helm at N Brown, she said: “It’s not just about being listed – yes there are different time pressures, but the biggest difference is being in a multi-brand, multi-channel organisation, rather than a mono brand and single channel.

“There are many more opportunities here – and many more challenges too.”

She describes Factory Shop as “the most different thing I’ve done”, given its size and ownership structure compared to the other retailers she’s worked for.

“You learn so much as CEO of a smaller organisation – you get much closer to the coal face – to the way the business runs in detail – and I really enjoyed that and learned a lot.”

Apart from the potential to grow the business internationally, she believes N Brown’s brands, particularly the younger-focused ranges, Simply Be for woman and Jacamo for men – are meeting a gap in the market hitherto unmet.

“What attracted me to this business was the customer proposition – making fashion affordable and accessible to larger customers, who have been to this point  at best been ignored, if not alienated by the fashion industry.

“There is real expertise here in terms of product development, it’s differentiated and globally scale-able.”

Her predecessor, Alan White, made the first moves in international markets. Simply Be was launched in Germany and then the US, and it is the latter location that is the focus for growth.

Mrs Spindler said: “We have actually closed the German website – we were seeing really high levels of product returns [which was not economical], whereas in the USA it’s a bigger market and one that we believe will be more economically viable.

“We have dipped our toe in the water and are finessing the model to give ourselves the confidence to really accelerate customer recruitment.”

While N Brown is committed to growing its high street presence from eight to 25 shops, she says the launch of physical stores on the other side of the Atlantic is not part of her strategy, for now.

One of the group’s stand-out achievements over the last five years is how it has adapted to the technological revolution. It has seen customers migrate from catalogues to websites in their droves, and most recently to mobile devices and tablets.

Mrs Spindler agrees that it is not enough just to have a good website, and convenience is key for today’s consumers. With this in mind the group launched a collect and return service through its logistics partner Hermes last autumn.

“Hermes have agreements with around 3,500 convenience stores, most of them independents, and we have made a collect and returns service available.

“We did a soft launch before Christmas – we were a little reluctant to make too much of it because it’s such a crucial time and we didn’t want to disappoint customers in case there were problems, but it worked really well and we’ll expand it,” Mrs Spindler says.

In a bid to keep abreast of the latest trends and innovations in technology she visited Google’s HQ in California last week.

She says: “We are determined to be best-in-class, and technology is changing ever month, innovation is never ending.” 

See also: Simply Be and Jacamo sparkle for N Brown