Victoria Beckham losses shrink as sales soar 50% at fashion brand

Victoria Beckham’s fashion and beauty business narrowed its losses last year as sales soared by 52% to £89m.

The company said sales rose online, at its flagship Mayfair store in central London and through wholesalers, helping cut 2023 losses to £200,000 from £900,000 the year before.

Sales growth at Victoria Beckham Ltd comes after a revamp of the brand – including expanding into leather goods and beauty – since the private equity group NEO invested £30m in 2017 for an undisclosed but significant minority stake.

After a tough 2022, Victoria, her husband, the former England footballer David, and NEO injected £6.9m to keep the business going.

Last year’s expansion into new product areas helped Beckham outperform many luxury goods brands, which have struggled as rising interest rates and China’s economic slowdown have taken their toll on the market.

Fashion is also in competition with travel and other experiences for a share of household budgets.

The former Spice Girl launched her first fashion collection in 2008 and the brand has retained a high profile, boosted last year by a capsule collaboration with the high street chain Mango and a hit Netflix documentary on David. The streaming company has also started work on a documentary series on Victoria.

David Beckham signed up as an ambassador for AliExpress, an online retail platform owned by the Chinese tech group Alibaba, ahead of the Euros men’s football competition this summer.

Earlier this year he also signed partnerships with the suit maker Hugo Boss and the air fryer maker SharkNinja adding to his links with Tudor watches, Tempur mattresses, Unicef, and Nespresso coffee machines. He also recently fronted a Walkers crisps ad.

Victoria Beckham’s top selling items in 2023 included a gathered waist midi dress, worn by the queen of Spain and Kendall Jenner, which accounted for one in every 10 online sales in 2023 and remains a bestseller this year.

The brand launched leather goods in 2022, with belts the fastest growing category, and experienced thirteen-fold growth in demand year on year.

Beckham’s beauty range, which launched in 2019, also enjoyed “significant growth” after it moved into fragrance.

Marie Leblanc, the chief executive of Victoria Beckham Ltd, said: “Having successfully repositioned the business, 2023 was another very strong year of progress for the company and we continue to see a healthy growth trajectory as we look to establish Victoria Beckham as a global luxury house.”

Katia Beauchamp, the chief executive of Victoria Beckham Beauty, said: “We continue to balance high consumer demand with business discipline to ensure we have a laser-sharp focus on continued profitability.”