The Investment
Piper led the £4 million development capital investment into Boden, a direct premium clothing brand sold via catalogues and over the internet. Piper was selected as part of a competitive auction process and has a substantial minority stake. Piper has since made further investments when shares have become available.
The Exit
In 2007 Piper exited Boden through a refinancing.
The Businesss
Boden is a full service catalogue and internet retailer selling its own brand casual clothes to women, men and children. It targets a wide audience and competes with Gap and M&S. It has built up an excellent database which has been used to cross market the different product ranges. Boden undertake almost every function internally (including design of product and catalogue and running the call centre and warehouse) providing the business and brand with a very strong culture. It started as a pure menswear business, and has successfully introduced womenswear (1994) and childrenswear (1996) to the range. The business now sells into the USA as well.
The Management Team
The business was founded by Johnnie Boden, who is chairman. Johnnie and Julian Granville, the Managing Director, run the business with the support of a high quality operating team.
Key Attractions
- Large stable market with underperforming competitors
- Quality of the operational team
- Strength of the brand relative to the size of the business
- Size of the database and the speed and relatively low cost with which it had been built