Mickey Drexler, J Crew’s head threw some light on the expansion plans while talking in a freewheeling interview on Bloomberg TV’s ‘In Business with Margaret Brennan’. J Crew is the preppy US retailer in the fashion market which has gone back to being a private company under the control of TPG. Mr. Drexler clarified during his interview that he was very comfortable with the buyout decision and thinks it was the best thing to do. He has no regrets about the decision and is looking forward to a bright future for the fashion brand for plans of rapid expansion in place.
J Crew is planning to launch an online business in the UK’s high-end fashion market this summer. In fact it was Mr. Drexler who had earlier repositioned J Crew as an up market fashion brand. They are taking the online route to expansion in the overseas market. At a future date they would be reviewing their online business to determine where to go in for physical stores. It is a smart move on their part as it will help them create a base in the UK market with relatively low investments. There online business in the US one of the most profitable. In the UK fashion market they are available at the moment through Net-a-Porter and have a good demand.
The fashion brand has so far concentrated on the US markets alone and will continue to their area of focus. A new outlet in Canada is also scheduled to open this summer. Mr. Drexler has been credited with Gap’s phenomenal rise to dominate the retail landscape in the 1990s It would be interesting to see if he can repeat his success story. The high end online fashion in the UK has become very competitive with Ralph Lauren and Boden leading in terms of the share of the market.
