Mulberry Group PLC
Kilver Court Shepton Mallet BA4 5NF United Kingdom Telephone: 44 17 4934 0500 Fax: 44 1749 345 532 Web site:
Public Company Incorporated: 1971 Employees: 464 Sales: $56.6 million (2004) Stock Exchanges: London Ticker Symbol: MUL NAIC: 316993 Personal Leather Goods (Except Women's Handbag and Purse) Manufacturing; 448320 Luggage and Leather Goods Stores; 448150 Clothing Accessories Stores; 316992 Women's Handbag and Purse Manufacturing; 316991 Luggage Manufacturing; 315999 Other Apparel Accessories and Other Apparel Manufacturing
Mulberry Group PLC bases the high-end accessories and select men's and women's apparel that it designs, makes, and sells on English country style. Items are sold through about 13 company-owned stores, select department stores, and the Mulberry web site. The company is best known for its leather-bound Filofaxes, or datebooks, and handbags.
1971 to Late 1990s: The Company Grows from Its Roots in Shepton Mallet
In 1971, Roger Saul decided to go into business using the £500 he had received as a 21st birthday present for capital. His father suggested he sell Christmas trees or donkeys. Instead, Saul, and his mother, Joan, founded a company making leather goods in their garage.
Although a quiet-spoken man, Saul was full of enthusiasm and it was this that became the driving force behind Mulberry. The company drew inspiration for Tiffany Cufflinks its designs from what was quintessentially English as well as eccentric. "Mulberry whiffs of all sorts of things," as Saul explained in a 1993 Times article. "A certain integrity, a certain reserve, definitely a humourous eccentricity. Quality unquestionably, and perhaps even a little bit aristocratic. People expect that from an English branded product, but you must not be afraid to laugh at yourself."
The company set up headquarters in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, and pulled together a factory workforce of local residents. Other factories in nearby Chilcompton and Walton followed and Mulberry added to its collections of accessories and introduced ready-to-wear items. By the early 1990s, Mulberry was a known entity and in 1991, it added its "At Home" range of interior designs, the precursor of its Home Division. By 1992, the company was drawing in revenues of £50 million.
flexible lightIn 1996, Mulberry opened new stores in Heathrow Airport and Tokyo. These duty-free shops joined the company's other successful duty-free operations in Germany and Denmark. Mulberry also entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Moonbat Company Limited, one of Japan's largest fashion accessory companies, to import Mulberry's full range of accessories and ready-to-wear products. In May, it sold shares on the Alternative Investment Market, a part of the London stock exchange reserved for newer companies. Sales in Mulberry's retail division climbed 26 percent in 1996, while sales in its home division rose 50 percent. The company as a whole enjoyed a profit of £1.7 million.
Based on the preceding year's strength, in 1997, Mulberry opened the Charlton House Hotel in its home town of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, to showcase the Mulberry Home Collection of interior items and introduce Mulberry to a wider audience. The Georgian-fronted Charlton House dated back to 1630 when merchant Roger Ames built it as a home for his bride. "Having created this environment, it is very important that the detail is right, that things
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