Charles Tyrwhitt is anticipating its business will grow by 20% over the next year as demand for casual workwear surges.
The shirtmaker said it now sees “growth in customers’ shopping baskets from more casual categories”, in a move away from pre-pandemic when it was focused on the sale of ties and blazers to office workers.
The business has stepped “into the expansion of the modern man’s working wardrobe to become the go-to brand for dressing men for the work ‘day ahead’ from ‘suited and booted’ to ‘dress down Fridays’”.
Pre-pandemic in 2020, the retailer’s turnover was around £220m, which fell to £100m during the height of lockdowns.
In the year to July 2023, Charles Tyrwhitt saw its sales surged 45% to £269m with underlying profits up to £44m – from £16.6m the year before in what founder Nick Wheeler called a “record year”.
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Much of its revenue growth was also driven by online sales, although the business said shoppers are returning to its stores as they “continued their recovery, post-Covid restrictions.”
The Telegraph reports that as a result, founder Nicholas Wheeler and his wife Chrissie Rucker, enjoyed a windfall of more than £21m last year as a return to offices revived demand for tailoring.
The £21.2m payout for the year to July 2023 to Wheeler and his wife is the first since 2020, according to its latest accounts.
Of that, £11.7m was paid out to the couple during the year, with the remaining £9.5m used to offset a loan the shirtmaker provided to the pair’s holding company.
Charles Tyrwhitt has opened seven new stores over the last 18 months with plans to open a 4,200 sq ft branch on Regent Street this week as it heavily invests in refitting and refurbishing a number of its stores, including in New York.
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