Following the success of its first flagship retailer, which opened on Bow Lane in the City of London in April, TM Lewin added a second flagship retailer in Canary Wharf final month – each fuelled by a again-to-workplace growth – in addition to a brand new reduce-worth retailer at Outlet Shopping at The O2.
Since opening the Bow Lane retailer, TM Lewin has bought over 7,000 shirts in-retailer, with tailoring now representing 30% of gross sales. Across all channels, shirt gross sales are up 43% year-on-year, whereas total income this yr has grown by round 40% in comparison with final yr. The introduction of casualwear has additionally pushed development, with hybrid working taking part in a key issue.
With extra retailer openings deliberate for 2026, it marks an thrilling new chapter for certainly one of Britain’s most iconic menswear manufacturers. Dan Ferris, who initially joined TM Lewin as Finance Director 4 years in the past, has been Managing Director for the previous yr – guiding it again to being a bodily retail enterprise as soon as once more to problem the likes of Charles Tyrwhitt and Hawes & Curtis. He offers his take on a really completely different TM Lewin from the enterprise that was purchased out of a second administration in two years in April 2022.
What’s a short spherical-up of the latest historical past of TM Lewin?
TM Lewin bought into monetary hassle throughout Covid, for apparent causes, as nobody was carrying formalwear throughout that point. They have been really looking for a sale previous to the pandemic and, studying between the strains, they’d have been going through aggressive headwinds at the time. I suppose the pandemic was the nail in the coffin.
The enterprise was put into administration, at which level it nonetheless had round 60 shops in the UK and six in Australia, which pre-dates my time with the firm. They all needed to be closed. However, over the previous few years (since 2022), it has been owned by a non-public fairness agency referred to as Petra Group, which relies in the US, and the enterprise has been restructured. We accomplished a complete turnaround, rebuilding the foundations of the enterprise. We reset the model and product technique and, as of April 2025, introduced it again to the high street with a flagship retailer at 44 Bow Lane in the City of London. We’ve additionally simply opened a second flagship at Canary Wharf, and there are extra shops deliberate in 2026.
Was TM Lewin simply promoting on-line once you joined in 2022?
When I got here in, TM Lewin was solely buying and selling on-line in the UK with shirts and fits from the legacy enterprise, which wasn’t actually viable. We relaunched our on-line worldwide enterprise in February 2024, however promoting formal shirts and fits on-line isn’t a straightforward promote. Hence we’ve now relaunched our bricks-and-mortar portfolio, and that’s our technique going ahead, as most individuals know TM Lewin for formalwear and choose to strive a go well with on in-retailer, in addition to discover the proper measurement in shirts. It’s additionally about model visibility and restoring TM Lewin’s iconic presence on the UK high street.
How are issues completely different now?
Business is booming. We’ve actually been helped by the drive again to the workplace, notably with quite a lot of the massive banks in the metropolis the place most individuals put on formal shirts. As a part of our model reset, we had to have a look at what the shopper demand was, and that does appear to have modified quite a bit from, say, the 2010s when it was largely shirts and fits. It’s now about hybrid working, so we’ve developed the vary round that.
What we’ve bought now could be a spread that matches with being in the workplace in a go well with and shirt for a board assembly on a Monday; then one other day you may simply put on a shirt and not using a jacket – proper the means by way of to Friday once you is likely to be working from dwelling. So, we’ve now bought issues like T-shirts, rugby shirts, quarter-zip knitwear, polo shirts, gilets, and chinos in the vary. That extra informal aspect is doing fantastically properly for us. I believe clients are actually realising that TM Lewin is a vacation spot the place you may store for no matter the event is – whether or not that’s working from dwelling or going to a board assembly.
In phrases of gross sales, what share is casualwear in comparison with formalwear?
It’s in the area of about 30%, so formalwear remains to be an enormous driver for us – notably shirts – however casualwear has come out of nowhere and now represents nearly a 3rd of our enterprise. It’s been notably robust in the previous yr, and we’re doubling down on that subsequent yr with new strains to enrich what we’ve already performed.
How has the first retailer in Bow Lane in the City of London carried out since opening final April?
Bow Lane was the first one again; we needed to be in the coronary heart of the metropolis, and it’s been incredible. We’ve had actually robust suggestions from clients and that’s what actually drove the resolution to open at Canary Wharf final month. In phrases of what it has performed for us, I believe it has delivered that uplift in tailoring, as 30% of gross sales in the Bow Lane retailer have been fits. That’s a lot greater than we get on-line. Around 40-50% of our gross sales, each on-line and in-retailer, are shirts.
Do you continue to provide a number of buy offers?
Yes, we’ve stayed true to providing offers on a number of purchases; for instance, you may get 4 shirts for £160 – so £40 per shirt. If you simply purchase one shirt it’s £65. We additionally provide offers on two or three objects, which our opponents don’t, so it’s a powerful level of distinction. If somebody is in the workplace for simply two days every week, they’ll purchase two shirts for £100, whereas three shirts price £135.
Our finest-promoting shirts are our twill slim-match choices, in addition to poplin and Oxfords. What we’ve performed with the shirts is diminished the vary drastically, as I believe that a part of the place TM Lewin went unsuitable in the previous is to not ask clients what they actually needed. Unfortunately, that ended up with this large vary of shirts. Yes, some clients might need needed an elephant or flamingo print on a shirt, however 99% of the buyer base didn’t need that! The inventory pool grew to become extremely fragmented, however now we’ve taken it again to the core and it appears to be going rather well. We’re simply attempting to increase the vary in the means that clients now store.
Who are your fundamental opponents?
It’s nonetheless Charles Tyrwhitt and Hawes & Curtis, albeit they’re bigger than us at the second. For now, they in all probability don’t view us as an excessive amount of competitors. Charles Tyrwhitt is an outstanding enterprise. They have actually capitalised on TM Lewin not being round in recent times.
How assured are you in rising bodily retail and do you suppose it’s necessary once more?
I believe so. From what we’re seeing, there appears to be an actual drive again to the high street, and we’re actually trying to increase additional subsequent yr. Looking at completely different areas, it does appear to be fairly aggressive on the market, however I’d say we’ll be on the lookout for at the very least three or 4 areas, which can predominantly be in London, although we’re additionally trying additional afield in the likes of Manchester and Edinburgh. It’s actually only a case of selecting the finest areas we will to get TM Lewin firmly again on the high street. However, we’re not going to increase willy-nilly – it’s bought to be performed in the proper means.
In phrases of retailer measurement, we’ve gone fairly giant with our first two as Bow Lane and Canary Wharf are our flagships. They are each about 1,800 sq ft. We’re now taking a look at barely several types of shops for our future roll-out, as we don’t want each retailer to be that measurement. We nonetheless want house to current our shirts in the finest means, so we’re in all probability taking a look at how we will match right into a sub-1,000 sq ft house and nonetheless obtain that.
What prompted opening a debut reduce-worth retailer at Outlet Shopping at the O2?
As we rebuild the bodily property, the outlet format offers us a extremely efficient option to current finish-of-line and overstock merchandise to clients who’re motivated by worth. While our full-worth shops proceed to commerce properly, Outlet Shopping at The O2 permits us to serve a extra worth-aware buyer section with out diluting the model. It’s a complementary channel that helps us optimise inventory, attain a broader viewers, and assist a extra environment friendly total retail mannequin.
Add to that, The O2 is certainly one of the UK’s highest-footfall retail locations, attracting a various mixture of home and worldwide clients. It has a powerful repute for outlet worth, style manufacturers, and experiential retail, which aligns properly with how TM Lewin is evolving. The setting offers us the alternative to showcase the model to new clients who might not have interaction with conventional high-street areas.
What is TM Lewin’s actual USP?
It’s model heritage, as TM Lewin is an over 125-yr-previous model, and which means one thing (TM Lewin was based in 1898 by Geoffrey James Lewin and Thomas Mayes Lewin on Panton Street in London, earlier than turning into established on close by Jermyn Street in 1903). As the administration workforce now, we’re the custodians of the model, and it’s about making that heritage related in the trendy world. It’s now about evolving and unlocking what which means for hybrid working, for instance. Hopefully, we’re doing an excellent job of that.
What are you able to do higher than different formalwear and sensible casualwear manufacturers?
We name it the “professional lifestyle wardrobe.” We’re by no means going to have denims with holes in our vary. Our energy is in our versatility and how our vary can combine and match. We’re deliberately bringing objects into the vary which might be adaptable. You may put on chinos with a shirt at some point, however you may as well put on the chinos with a T-shirt or polo. The colors in the vary are straightforward to combine and match.
Our buyer is the kind of man who might be a high-net-price particular person and doesn’t need to suppose an excessive amount of about how he clothes. He’s a man in the metropolis who desires to pop into Lewin on his lunch break and get his shirts, T-shirts, chinos, or no matter, in a single hit. He simply desires to come back in, get kitted out, and know that he’s going to look good strolling round the workplace or at the weekend.
What are your finest-promoting fits?
The go well with aspect has been actually fascinating. TM Lewin had an unlimited vary of fits, however what we’ve seen is that our greatest-promoting fits are literally our costliest ones. The suggestions we’re getting from clients is that they’re coming again to us from different manufacturers, as they haven’t been in a position to get the high quality they have been beforehand getting from TM Lewin. Instead of getting perhaps three completely different fits they put on by way of the week, they’re now carrying one actually high-quality go well with, and that’s the place we appear to be successful. They can come to us and get a navy or charcoal Vitale Barberis Italian wool go well with for £500 – that’s our premium worth level. Our backside-finish worth level is £300, and that’s nonetheless a extremely nice go well with that we’re very pleased with, however we do see our clients gravitating in direction of the £500 worth level – purely as a result of they need that one actually good-high quality go well with versus two of these £300 fits.
Waistcoats aren’t as well-liked as they have been, so it tends to be our two-piece fits fairly than three-piece that folks need now, notably with a single-breasted, two-button jacket. We’ve additionally simply launched a flannel go well with vary, which is barely extra informal. Again, we’ve performed it so clients can combine and match – for instance, a flannel blazer in navy with trousers in gray.
Are you taking a look at introducing extra informal strains?
We are certainly – subsequent summer time will in all probability be the most informal we’ve ever been. Having had such success with T-shirts, we’re going to be introducing shorts as properly. There might be a number of-buy offers throughout each of these classes too, making them excellent for folks going on vacation. The natural cotton T-shirts are £25 every, or 5 for £50, so we’re driving basket quantity with that – the similar method we use for our shirts.
We’re additionally increasing our polos and linen shirts providing for subsequent summer time. Off the again of the success we’ve had with our chinos, we’ve not too long ago added a sensible, slim-match 5-pocket jean with a contact of stretch – extra like a jean you may put on on a extra informal day at work. We’ve expanded the providing for the prime half of the physique quite a bit, so now we’re taking a look at growing our providing for the backside half. If the denims show profitable, we might introduce an everyday match and extra colors, just like what we’ve performed with the chinos. The denims are the similar worth as the chinos: £80 every, or two pairs for £120.