Flannels is a luxury British multi-brand retailer known as well for the brands it stocks – Off-White, Burberry, Stone Island, Gucci and Versace – as for its creative collaborations and beautifully designed new stores. With 45 stores now open across the UK, including a newly opened London flagship, FLANNELS is considered to be at the forefront of contemporary fashion retail. The chain of high end stores are based in the United Kingdom and specialise in streetwear, contemporary ready-to-wear and luxury fashion clothing, shoes and accessories for men, women and kids. It was founded by Neil Prosser in 1976, who remained the managing director until the brand was acquired by Frasers Group plc in 2017. By 2014 Flannels had stores open in Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds and Nottingham including Manchester’s Life store and Flannels’ Lowry Outlet store in Salford Quays. By the summer of 2016, a new Flannels stores had opened in Sunderland, Gateshead's Metrocentre, Swindon, Cardiff, Silverburn shopping centre Glasgow and Plymouth. The store now has a location in Middlesbrough, Denton, Southport, and Auchinlea. In 2012, Frasers Group bought a majority 51% stake in Flannels. In September 2017 they acquired brand in full and began investing in the stores. In March 2019, the group unveiled their ambitious plans to continue opening stores until it reaches its target of 100. In April 2019, Highsnobiety called Flannels 'The Biggest Luxury Retailer You've Never Heard Of' and Hypebae cited Flannels as one of the best streetwear stores for women. September 2019 saw Flannels open a 20,000 sq ft flagship store on Oxford Street, London. 2019 also saw the opening of new stores in York, Watford, Leicester, Chester and Belfast where the retailer opened its largest store to date within Frasers in Victoria Square.
History
Neil Prosser founded Flannels in 1976 with a menswear store in Knutsford, Cheshire. After four years he opened a second outlet in Altrincham’s Goose Green to much success and the inevitable happened in 1987 when Flannels opened a store in Manchester city centre. This ‘flagship’ store introduced new labels to the city for the first time such as Giorgio Armani, Canali, Paul Smith, CP Company and Stone Island. Based on the necessity to divide more casual and formal ranges, the ‘Life’ store on Manchester’s Old Bank Street was opened, selling a much younger, street-based style of product. In 1994 Flannels expanded into the womenswear market, opening two new shops in Manchester’s Royal Exchange Arcade. A Life store in Birmingham and an accessories store in Leeds also opened in this year. Neil Prosser’s friendship with successful retailer Jim Gibson led to a joint venture in 1995 with women's and menswear stores under the name Cruise Flannels being opened in Nottingham, and subsequently in Birmingham and Newcastle in 1996. In February 2000 Prosser and Gibson parted ways after their venture grew to 17 stores nationwide, and the Cruise Flannels shops in Birmingham and Nottingham were rebranded as Flannels sites. In May 2004, Flannels Cardiff opened. with an attached restaurant. In April 2006, the first Flannels store in Liverpool opened in the city’s luxury shopping destination, the Metquarter. A flagship Flannels store was then opened in the 2008 development, Liverpool One, creating a concept store covering 20,000sq feet across three floors. The store’s cool, spacious design sets the new blueprint for Flannels stores featuring original pieces and Parisian antiques in a minimal contemporary setting. 2018 saw the group unveil the first of its multi-million pound refurbishments starting with a 10,000sq ft store in the Westgate shopping centre in Oxford. In May, the group opened a 20,000sq ft store in Newcastle followed by stores in Sutton and Chester in August 2019. By the end of 2019 Flannels opened further stores in Watford, Belfast, York. Flannels York opened within part of the former British Home Stores shop on Coney Street, which had been empty since 29 August 2016. September 2019 saw the brand open its flagship London store on Oxford Street. The 20,000sq ft store was designed by Italian architects pconp and artist Riccardo Previdi. The design has been nominated for a Retail Week award for best store design. In November 2019, the Newcastle store won a Drapers award for best store design. December 2019 saw the opening of Flannel's largest store to date in the Victoria Square, Belfast. The 30,000sq ft store is situated on the top floor of the Frasers store and includes the first Flannels Cafe.
Flannels Online
The Flannels website was launched in 2007 as an extension of the business offering the same designer brands available in store as well as a designer clearance section. In January 2010, the website was overhauled by retail systems company Eurostop – overseeing the retailer’s electronic point of sale software and head officeretail management – and in July 2012 the system was updated to integrate key business processes including a mobile site.
