How Victoria Plans To Turn Around 28K-A-Day Financial Losses

WHEN VICTORIA BECKHAM opened her September runway show with Stella Tennant in a slouchy white suit, it was hailed as a highlight of London Fashion Week.

- Tamara Abraham

The designer, who marked a decade in business by showing at home for the first time, won universal praise for her easy-to-wear tailoring and luxurious separates. Her designer credibility was then cemented when she was nominated for British Womenswear Designer of the Year at The Fashion Awards last month.

But the company’s latest earnings report reveals it lost £10.2m in operating costs in 2017 – and continues to lose £28,000 a day. In short, the company is yet to turn a profit. On the surface, this looks bad – certainly, headlines were quick to point out Victoria’s ‘failure’ when figures broke – but anyone familiar with the challenges of building a luxury brand knows that it takes a lot of time and investment to start turning a profit.

Some of the biggest designers have found themselves running at a loss. Their tactic has been to sell out to luxury goods conglomerates: JW Anderson sold a minority stake to LVMH to grow his business, Christopher Kane sold a majority stake to Kering, while Proenza Schouler reportedly lost the chance to be acquired by LVMH because it just wasn’t profitable enough. Erdem, which launched in 2005 and has never taken investment, only opened its first store in 2015.