George Davies, high street fashion designer, is negotiating with WM Morrison about designing a line of clothing for the grocery chain, looking to take their first step into fashion retailing.
Wanting to expand from just selling food, Morrison’s chief executive, Dalton Phillips could put a feather in his cap if he lands the high street designer to design their line of clothing.
Davies left Asda in 200 to launch Per Una and it has been over 10 years since he designed for a supermarket retailer. His recent venture, GIVe, has not taken off too well and this could atone for that if he were to launch a successful line for Morrison’s.
GIVe, a take on George IV, was not accepted by mass-market customers due to being expensive and high-end. Never a corporate man, the often difficult and mercurial Davies is regarded as a fashion genius.
Half of the people dislike me and half love me says Davies. In 1982 he turned Hepworths in Next and that is where he got his break. The retailer’s catalogue was great success, but he was eventually ousted due to a disagreement with strategy. George at Asda, a low price fashion line was then created by Davies and today has over £2 billion in sales world wide.
Not wanting to sound arrogant he did recently mention that he has a gift. Playing music is a gift I do not have even though I would love to be playing since I am a Liverpudlian.
Luc Vandevelde was leading a struggling M&S in 2001 when Per Una was developed by Mr. Davies and this help turn around the company. Working with M&S, Davies made a fortune. They purchased the line for £125m in 2004.
There is a trend for supermarkets to increase their non-food sales. Tesco, UK’s largest supermarket was thinking of opening a fashion only store in London.
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