While many other UK retailers are feeling the squeeze and shutting shops, Smiggle’s British sales nearly doubled to £56m last year and its profits surged from £3.3m to £10.8m, according to accounts filed this month. It’s a bigger market opportunity than you’d think, with Sheffield-born Cheston revealing that some children turn up at his shops in affluent Surrey with a crisp £50 note to spend. “It’s not unusual for kids to have pocket money of £20, £30, £40 a week,” he says. Smiggle is one of several brands owned by Just Group, a subsidiary of Premier Investments, run by retail billionaire Solomon Lew. Cheston is undeterred: “I think anything that entices children to want to go to school is a good thing.

Source: The Guardian May 18, 2018 14:06 UTC