So just who are the Flannels Group?

Monday 29 August 2016

The Flannels Group has just paid £18million for the now empty BHS store in St Helier and have promised to be up and running before Christmas with around 50 retail jobs up for grabs.

But who are they and where did they originate? The company was the brainchild of Neil Prosser in 1976 and he remains the managing director today, even though high street giants Sports Direct brought a controlling 51% stake in Flannels four years ago.

New York-born Mr Prosser is regarded by his business associates as a quiet and understated gentleman who fell into fashion as it was the only business he knew. His father worked in textiles, a job which mean global travel and resulted in Mr Prosser’s birthplace and the Flannels owner began working in the family business as a teenager. 

His father’s ill health meant a move from London back to his Manchester family base and from there Mr Prosser started his own career. 

His first store was in Knutsford, Cheshire and within four years he had opened a second outlet in nearby Atrincham. Their success was instant and based on bringing luxury clothing, shoes and accessories for men into a more affordable price range. 

More store openings followed as Flannels opened up in Manchester city centre in 1987, introducing new labels to the city such as Armani, Stone Island and Paul Smith. 

By 1994 Flannels started selling womenswear, opening up further stores in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.  

Mr Prosser then went into partnership with another successful retailer Jim Gibson in 1995 and the pair opened more stores in Nottingham and Newcastle, but they parted ways in 2000.

By 2004 Flannels was opening up in Cardiff, where they added a restaurant to their more traditional retail base and two years later another new site was added in Liverpool, at the prestigious Liverpool One location. 

In 2007 the company launched their own website, but five years later the business made a 12-month loss of over £300,000 and Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct, which wanted to expand its premium lifestyle division, brought a majority stake of 51% in Flannels. 

By this summer Flannels had added stores in Sunderland, Newcastle’s Metro Centre, Swindon, Cardiff and Plymouth, with a store in Southport opening soon.