Boden boss: I ‘effed up’ and will revive catalogue

‘Middle-class staple’ clothing retailer to overhaul the brand after profits slump

The boss of Boden will tell customers that he “effed up” after a string of blunders pushed the British fashion brand to a loss.

Johnnie Boden, who founded the clothing brand from his kitchen table in 1991, has admitted to a “catalogue of mistakes” and is preparing to revamp the business.

The overhaul will see the London-based company axe its struggling menswear division and revive its famous catalogue.

As part of the rebrand, Boden will also send loyal customers apologetic emails featuring phrases such as: “Sorry, I’m a complete nitwit. I effed up.”

It comes after Boden slumped to a £4.4m loss last year, compared to a profit of £22m 2021, according to figures seen by The Times.

Revenues fell 2pc to £350m, while customer numbers were down 5pc to 1.8 million.

Mr Boden, 62, told the newspaper that the colourful brand had lost its way and vowed to get it back on track.

He said the company, which is favoured by the Duchess of Cambridge and Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty, had gone “too young” with its womenswear line and upset a lot of customers.

He said: “We forgot who we were. We changed the product too much. We had less colour, we had shorter silhouettes and we had the sorts of products that were on trend, which is not very us.”

Boden has also struggled to gain traction for its menswear range amid tough competition from rivals such as Charles Tyrwhitt.

The brand originally launched with just a menswear range, before introducing a women’s line and childrenswear later. Mr Boden insisted the company would eventually restart its menswear division, but “not quite yet”.

High rents and lacklustre sales forced Boden to close its only brick-and-mortar shop, on the King’s Road in Chelsea, last year.

It has also significantly scaled back distribution of its catalogue, which was once a staple of middle-class homes and is described by the founder as a “bible”.

Mr Boden said surging paper prices and the shift to digital had made the reduction necessary, but admitted the company cut back too much.

Mr Boden, a self-proclaimed “pernickety customer” who was awarded a CBE in June, said he knew the self-effacing marketing emails were a risky move.

“We might get lots of complaints, but we just have to do something a bit different,” he added.

Boden, a staple of the British middle-classes for more than three decades, has shifted from its traditional catalogue model to selling through its website and third-party retailers including John Lewis.

In the US, it sells through department store chain Nordstrom. America is now its biggest market, thanks in part to its popularity with celebrities such as Sienna Miller.

The brand overhaul will coincide with the launch of Boden’s upcoming “autumn/winter ‘23 season” collection.