Victoria Beckham Label Cuts Losses as 2023 Sales Surge Over 50%

Victoria Beckham’s fashion and beauty business significantly reduced its losses last year, with sales skyrocketing by 52% to reach £89m.

The company attributed this increase to rising sales online, at its flagship Mayfair store in central London, and through wholesalers. This surge in revenue helped cut losses down to £200,000 from the previous year’s £900,000.

Victoria Beckham Ltd has seen sales growth following a brand revamp that included expanding into leather goods and beauty products. This transformation was initiated after private equity group NEO invested £30m in 2017 for a significant minority stake in the company.

Despite a challenging 2022, the business received a financial boost from Victoria Beckham, her husband David Beckham, and NEO, who jointly injected £6.9m to sustain operations.

This expansion and diversification into new product areas proved beneficial last year, especially as other luxury brands struggled with rising interest rates and China’s economic slowdown impacting the market.

The luxury fashion market also faces competition from travel and other experiences vying for consumer spending.

Victoria Beckham, who launched her first fashion collection in 2008, has maintained a high profile for her brand. Last year, the brand’s visibility was boosted by a capsule collaboration with high street chain Mango and a hit Netflix documentary about David Beckham. Netflix is also producing a documentary series focused on Victoria.

David Beckham, meanwhile, signed on as an ambassador for AliExpress, a Chinese retail platform owned by Alibaba, ahead of the Euros men’s football competition this summer.

In addition to this, David has established partnerships with suit maker Hugo Boss and air fryer manufacturer SharkNinja, complementing his existing affiliations with Tudor watches, Tempur mattresses, Unicef, and Nespresso. He also recently appeared in a Walkers crisps advertisement.

Among Victoria Beckham’s top-selling items in 2023 was a gathered waist midi dress, worn by both the queen of Spain and Kendall Jenner. This dress accounted for one in every ten online sales in 2023 and remains a bestseller this year.

The brand introduced leather goods in 2022, with belts emerging as the fastest-growing category, showing a thirteen-fold increase in demand year-on-year.

Victoria Beckham’s beauty range, launched in 2019, also experienced “significant growth,” especially after expanding into the fragrance sector.

Marie Leblanc, the chief executive of Victoria Beckham Ltd, commented: “Having successfully repositioned the business, 2023 was another very strong year of progress for the company and we continue to see a healthy growth trajectory as we look to establish Victoria Beckham as a global luxury house.”

Katia Beauchamp, the chief executive of Victoria Beckham Beauty, stated: “We continue to balance high consumer demand with business discipline to ensure we have a laser-sharp focus on continued profitability.”

Source: The Guardian, WWD