Ziff looks to future after Dolcis deal
STYLO chairman Michael Ziff has explained the strategy behind buying rival Dolcis out of administration.
The Bradford group, which owns the Barratts and PriceLess brands, stepped in to acquire the name, stock and up to 23 stores from the administrators of Dolcis yesterday.
The move came as something of a surprise to many retail experts who had been predicting continued tough times for Britain's shoe retailers.
However Mr Ziff believes the deal, which he described as for “small numbers”, will strengthen Barratts' position as the UK's fourth largest shoe retailer behind leader Clarks, number two player Marks & Spencer and third placed Shoe Zone which owns Stead & Simpson.
Stylo does not plan to keep the Dolcis name on the high street. Administrator KPMG has already shut 89 of the 185 Dolcis outlets making 482 staff redundant. Another 18 closed yesterday and the remainder will now be closed.
“This gives us the opportunity for breathing space for Barratts,” he said. “We see this as helping consolidation in the shoe industry. Last year was a tough year.”
Mr Ziff said that too many of the mid-market shoe chains such as Barratts, Stead & Simpson and Ravel had been losing money and there was not room for that to continue.
“But we are seeing chinks of light at this stage in areas where the competition has closed down. This is a move to increase that,” he said of the Dolcis deal.
Initially Stylo secured deals on 10 Dolcis stores and it has continued negotiations on another 13. Mr Ziff said it will hold closing down sales in the stores it acquires.
Where the Dolcis stores are in better sites than Barratts shops, it will move them into the newly acquired stores. Barratts has 180 stores while there are 200 PriceLess shops.
Mr Ziff revealed that Stylo was close to selling its Shellys fashion brand which he described as “a disaster” and said a deal to sell it would be concluded in the next two months.
Mr Ziff said he was confident that Stylo can succeed in the current retail climate because of the strong team it now boasts.
Since January it has recruited Roger Parr, the former Stead & Simpson buying director, as women's buying director for Barratts while Dolcis buying director Richard Bower has taken the position of merchandise director at the chain.
They are the latest appointments, in the last few months Mr Ziff has brought in Richard Wharton the co-founder of Office to radically overhaul the Barratts business as well as former Stead & Simpson chief executive David Lockyer as non-executive director and former Office buying director Lynsey Hand to consult on women's products.
