Oliver Sweeney hails ‘revival’ after strategic shift

The boss of Oliver Sweeney has hailed a “revival” of the luxury menswear brand following a strategic shift which saw it expand beyond footwear into clothing and close all of its shops.
The London-based business, founded in 1989 and best known for its handcrafted boots and shoes, suffered amid the pandemic.
Its bricks-and-mortar retail arm collapsed into administration in 2020 and all its seven stores —spanning London, Leeds and Manchester — were permanently closed.
The group’s website remained active, however, and it expanded into clothing to boost sales, transforming from a footwear-focused heritage brand into a broader menswear retailer.
The pivot under Tim Cooper, the chief executive, has paid off. The brand’s revenue grew by 18.5 per cent to £9 million in the year to the end of April, bolstered by a 52.3 per cent increase in clothing sales.
The store closures and diversification also helped the company secure “record” pre-tax profits, climbing 6.4 per cent to £583,436.
Cooper, chief executive since 2009, told The Times that running an online-only business was “much easier to control and to make more sales”.
“In physical retail, the moment that you’ve got very high fixed costs, and the moment that your revenue falls, you very quickly go from being sustainable or profitable into a money-topping business. Whereas online, your fixed costs are a very small proportion of your total revenue.”
He said that since 2020 the company has focused on “simplifying the business model, which is effectively a digital model. We’ve gone from a small but complicated business, spanning across retail, online and wholesale. Now we’re a small but growing and uncomplicated business.”
Oliver Sweeney is a British luxury brand that has been crafting shoes since its inception. The brand takes its name from its eponymous founder, Oliver Sweeney, a shoemaker who sought to blend traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design.
The majority owner of Oliver Sweeney is private investor Amery Capital, run by Maurice Helfgott. Cooper, who comes from a background of four generations of cobblers and shoemakers, is also a significant investor.
Cooper his ambition for Oliver Sweeney is to become a “menswear business rather than a shoe business that has some clothing. That’s the big transformation I want to see, because the clothing market is six times as big as the footwear market.”
The range now includes merino wool jumpers, priced at £129, and shearling leather jackets for £899.
Cooper said there had been a “renaissance” of men’s formalwear since the end of the pandemic, which had resulted in a shift away from smarter attire.
“We obviously had men wearing quite formal clothing before the pandemic, and then went very casual, into loungewear, and now it seems to be people who want to dress up a little bit. We’re seeing a little bit of a renaissance in our formal footwear offer.”