Laura Ashley Bought by US Owner of Ben Sherman

Laura Ashley has been acquired by New York-based Marquee Brands, the owner of 17 businesses including Ben Sherman and Martha Stewart.

The clothing and home furnishings brand, best known for its floaty floral frocks, has been sold by Gordon Brothers.

Gordon Brothers has owned Laura Ashley since 2020, when the US restructuring specialist bought the business out of administration after it became the first major retail casualty of the Covid pandemic.

The company, which has no stores of its own, made a return to the high street the following year through a deal with Next.

Laura Ashley also has deals in place with DFS and John Lewis in the UK, and is available in 150 shops globally via a network of overseas licensees.

The deal with Marquee Brands will result in Laura Ashley’s UK-based team, which is run by Poppy Marshall-Lawton, being retained and the US company opening its first European headquarters in London.

“With the existing UK team in place, we are primed and ready to leverage Laura Ashley’s seven-decade legacy to unlock its future potential as a full lifestyle brand innovating new products and categories,” Heath Golden, the chief executive of Marquee Brands, said.

“Laura Ashley’s licensed business model and robust group of high-quality partners makes the brand a seamless addition,” Golden added.

The company was founded on Laura and Bernard Ashley’s kitchen table in 1953, starting as a purveyor of affordable country living-inspired products such as headscarves and napkins.

In the 1970s it took off as a fashion brand, its floppy floral dresses becoming a wearable mainstream version of hippy culture.

By the time of Laura’s death from a brain haemorrhage in 1985, the brand had 220 stores globally and was a staple of the Sloane Ranger set, led by Diana, Princess of Wales.

During the noughties the company built up its homeware operation, which accounted for 80 percent of the business at the time of its collapse.

However, by the mid-2010s, sales and profits began a spiral of decline, putting Laura Ashley on the brink of collapse even before the pandemic shuttered all UK shops.

Before going into administration, Laura Ashley had been listed on the London Stock Exchange but was controlled by the Malaysian group MUI.

By Mark Sweney

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