Sales soar at Hela Brands as turnaround gathers pace
Sales at brand house, Hela Brands, soared almost 200% last month, the team behind the ambitious strategy to revive its fortune has revealed.
In March, sales were up 197% on the same period last year with Hela completing its biggest ever month, delivering 1.9m units to 22 different countries around the world.
Hela, formerly known as Focus Brands, was offloaded by JD Sports in January last year as part of the retail giant’s programme of divesting non-core assets. The company was bought by Sri Lankan manufacturer, Hela Apparel.
It was a move that saw Ray Evans, former MD of Manchester-based ecommerce firm, Kit Bag, appointed as CEO.
Evans, who was also director of football at JD Sports, has spent the last 12 months implementing a revival programme which has seen the business rebranded to Hela Brands.
Evans has also overhauled the senior management team, introduced new brands and revived some of the older ones.
Hela Brands, designs, sources and distributes and sports and lifestyle brands some of which it owns, while others are under licences. Brands include Ellesse, Nautica, OEX, Patrick and recently required Reebok Outerwear.
Evans said that turnover for FY 2024 will be around £70m and he is projecting the figure to top the £100m mark in three years.
It is understood that the company had a turnover of around £130m at its peak, but this has declined in recent years.
Elsewhere, Hela Brands is working with London rapper AntsLive to officially launch UK streetwear label AVX, a sub-brand of iconic Avirex Dept. Hela Brands has worked with Avirex, a brand renowned for its high end and legendary aviator aesthetic, on the creation of AVX, bringing a more affordable label to the UK market.
Last month, Hela Brands broke its own records fulfilling 20,000 orders and shipping more than 64,000 cartons across the globe.
Garments including textiles and footwear were distributed direct to retailers and wholesalers across the UK and Ireland, and internationally to countries including Australia, Germany, Greece, Panama, Poland, and Taiwan.
Chief operating officer Andrew Ward: “Q1 is traditionally a very busy period for us with customers gearing up for the launch of the spring summer collections and product being needed at wholesalers and retail outlets across the globe but this quarter broke all the records.
“This is testament to the hard work that has gone into growing the business, both in terms of developing new brand relationships and new and extended product collections for existing partners. With more exciting plans in the pipeline, I think we will increase these numbers even further during our next busy period in Q3.”
