Mike Ashley thinks luxury Flannels shops 'bonkers'

It's ne'er casual taking implicit a business, particularly erstwhile your predecessor is arsenic successful, and vocal, arsenic Mike Ashley.

But a twelvemonth aft taking implicit arsenic CEO of Frasers Group from his father-in-law, Michael Murray told the BBC helium is reinventing the institution his way.

He is targeting "new luxury, aspirational" customers, particularly successful his 60 Flannels shops, which merchantability decorator clothes.

He admits his father-in-law, however, thinks the shops are "bonkers".

Frasers Group's best-known marque remains Sports Direct, which Mr Ashley founded successful 1982 and built into a publicly-listed company.

The Sports Direct empire was rebranded arsenic Frasers successful 2019 and present includes the likes of Jack Wills, Sofa.com, Evans Cycles and House of Fraser, arsenic good arsenic Flannels.

Mr Murray, 33, is joined to Mr Ashley's eldest girl Anna. Before helium took implicit arsenic CEO past year, helium wasn't an worker of Sports Direct, nor did helium person a spot connected the board. He earned millions of pounds successful consultancy fees linked to a big of spot deals helium made for the group.

Sports Direct primitively made its sanction with cut-price deals connected sports goods. Self-made billionaire Mr Ashley made headlines with revelations astir his drinking exploits and his 14-year tenure arsenic proprietor of Newcastle United Football Club.

Mr Ashley, 58, is inactive the bulk shareholder successful Frasers Group and Mr Murray says his father-in-law is precise overmuch progressive successful the business.

"Mike's an adept operator," helium says. "We telephone him 'The Mechanic' - helium looks aft the warehouse, the proviso chain, he's optimising that engine.

"He's making definite the back-end strategy and the logistics support up with the beforehand end. That's what helium spends his time and nighttime reasoning about."

At household occasions similar Christmas, "business is each we speech about, there's thing else, it's our communal interest."

"It's difficult," Mr Murray says with a smile. "We're some obsessed, we unrecorded and respire it."

But 1 country wherever Mr Ashley and his son-in-law don't needfully spot eye-to-eye is Flannels, wherever Mr Murray is showcasing his imaginativeness for "aspirational shopping".

If you look astir the Flannels store connected London's Oxford Street, you volition spot connected show sports tops for £600, trainers for £400 and hoodies for £300. There are surely nary 2-for-1 sock deals, which you volition inactive spot successful the Sports Direct store that stares astatine it from implicit the road.

In the basement of the London Flannels store determination is adjacent an immersive, integer creation installation.

So what does Mr Ashley marque of Flannels?

"He thinks it's bonkers," says Mr Murray. "He can't recognize wherefore radical would walk truthful overmuch connected luxury clothing. But helium understands that helium doesn't understand, and helium understands you person to beryllium applicable to consumers.

"He understands erstwhile helium sees the results. It's rather singular what we've done."

In its past acceptable of results, Frasers Group's "premium lifestyle" brands saw revenues of conscionable implicit £530m successful the six months to the extremity of October past year, up astir 25% connected the erstwhile year, with Flannels the biggest operator of that growth.

The sports retail broadside of the business, including Sports Direct, inactive turns implicit astir 3 times arsenic overmuch gross arsenic the premium manner arm, though it is not increasing arsenic rapidly.

Flannels has "ridden the question of caller aspirational shopping", says Mr Murray, contempt the outgo of surviving crisis.

Its people marketplace is 18 to 30-year-olds, who person been taught to aspire to costly products by societal media, helium says.

Many are inactive surviving astatine home, truthful person been sheltered from rising involvement rates, rents oregon precocious vigor bills. They similar to walk their disposable income connected health, fittingness and clothing, says Mr Murray.

While Flannels whitethorn beryllium his pridefulness and joy, Mr Murray admits it is not arsenic scaleable arsenic Sports Direct, which is expanding internationally, including into Asia.

One twelvemonth into the job, helium says helium would similar his bequest to beryllium "the translation [of the business] from a discount sports retailer to Europe's biggest, astir aspirational retailer".