New Hunter owner to tap brand’s British roots to give sales some welly

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Hunter Boots’ new owner is looking to take the upmarket wellington brand global as it seeks to capitalise on a “new love affair with Britain” across the US and Asia.

Nick Woodhouse, president of Authentic Brands, said the “quintessentially British” bootmaker had not “had its story told” by its previous owners and had the potential to be the next Supreme, a US streetwear label that harnessed cultural trends and exclusivity to boost its allure.

His remarks come after Hunter’s collapse into administration this month, with insolvency practitioners blaming Covid-19, reduced demand and supply chain problems.

“It’s amazing to think this is a brand that a king will wear and the person who mucks out the king’s stables will also wear,” Woodhouse said. “There is room for a terrific sportswear, accessories, bags, luggage collection with the name Hunter.”

Authentic, which is co-owned by former basketball star Shaquille O’Neal and whose portfolio also includes Ted Baker and Reebok, bought Hunter and some unsold stock for £70mn after a competitive bidding process with four other companies, according to a recent administrator’s report.

Woodhouse said Authentic would not repeat the mistakes of previous owners, which included overly focusing on the luxury sector and neglecting practical buyers.

Founded 160 years ago, Hunter spent most of its life supplying farm workers and well-heeled country dwellers but in recent decades has acquired a more glamorous image as it became the country footwear of choice for the fashion elite, from royalty to supermodels such as Kate Moss. Former UK prime minister David Cameron brought two pairs for then-US president Barack Obama’s daughters on his first state visit to the country in 2010.

“The story [told by the previous owners] was this is a high-end luxury brand that only plays at places like Selfridges . . . there’s lots of other places where, you know, the person is actually using it for its intended use,” said Woodhouse.

Hunter was acquired by private equity companies in 2011, which sought to burnish its luxury credentials by collaborating with brands such as Saint Laurent and Stella McCartney. Around that time it also began outsourcing production to Europe and China.

Some analysts said Hunter’s previous owners had chased an unattainable goal of scale, alienating core customers while piling on debt, which had reached £98mn by the time the company appointed administrators.

“When people alight on a very well-established brand that seems to have some cache and an upmarket following, it’s often rather seductive to see the potential fruits of adding significant scale to it,” said Richard Hyman, partner at retail consultancy TPC.

“Often in the process of adding significant scale the goose that has laid some golden eggs tends to be starved of the oxygen it needs . . . but it’s still a good brand. It needs to really focus on that customer heartland that made it the attractive brand it was to begin with.”

A spokesperson for Pall Mall Capital, the previous owner, denied that excessive debt was the downfall of the company, pointing to the fact that the company only paid £32,000 in cash interest payments in 2021. “Any assertion that the company’s debt structure was detrimental to the business is untrue,” they said.

Brendan Ballou, author of Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America, told the Financial Times that private equity ownership of companies often came with three crucial problems — “short-term perspective, a lot of debt and insulation from liability”, a combination he said “tends to have bad results for consumers and workers”.

Hunter’s revenues peaked at £114mn in 2018, when it made pre-tax profit of £6mn. After that its losses mounted, it says, for two reasons: Covid and dry, warm weather in North America, its largest market.

The Covid-19 pandemic also meant the cancellation of big-ticket events such as the Glastonbury festival, which as well as being a driver of demand meant free marketing for the brand as tabloids reported on the latest star sporting the boots.

The company was forced to seek a £16.5mn rescue deal in 2020, which made Pall Mall Capital the controlling shareholder.

Administrators AlixPartners noted that while sales had recovered along the retail rebound in 2021 following pandemic lockdowns, the group’s liquidity had been hit by investments to improve its supply chain and the higher cost of using air freight rather than shipping.

Woodhouse said the Authentic model had worked for mid-market Ted Baker, which “will be profitable this year” after making an underlying pre-tax loss of £38.4mn in 2022.

“Our model is taking terrific brands in broken models and fixing. There are very few global brands that are quintessentially British. I think of Cadbury or HP sauce, these are items that are universally loved because of their Britishness.”