When will Blacks realise it is in the fashion business

This is going to sound naive I know, but it can be very hard, when looking at struggling retailers talk about how they are going to turn things around, to stay calm. Step forward Blacks Leisure. How come they almost never talk about the damn PRODUCT. Most of the reason they are in trouble in the first place is because they have generally lost focus on what they do well. They stop listening to the customer, stop reading the market and stop watching their competitors. Or if they are doing all these things, they are probably not structured internally to do much about it quickly or at all, until it is too late.

Some retailers live in a bubble of their own making; the bubble is their world and there is no other. A patently silly way to do business in a world that is changing so fact. Fashion retailers are better at adapting and innovating, because that is the world they live in" they have to be tuned in and connected. So, what is Blacks excuse? They may feel, were not a fashion retailer, but that's the whole point, they are. Fashion touches every aspect of outdoor activity and if they could just employ a decent senior fashion buyer, their troubles would be over. Hell, I could do it. Offers on a post card please.

Now, Blacks isn't doing too well at the moment, but the focus is all on debt restructuring and how it is going to raise more money when one analyst says the shares are probably only worth a penny. If it comes off the stock market and falls to private equity, will they be interested in turning it around? Now I'm worried that the high street doesn't actually need an outdoor specialist.

Published July 2011