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Inset: 2017 saw Fashion UK investing heavily in the business and growing in Europe. Below centre: Music is among the top trends to watch in apparel.
FACE TO FACE WITH… FASHION UK
Trend setters Fashion UK had a great year in 2017, notching up award wins and significant success at retail. The acquisition of Global Licensing has further underlined its credentials within the apparel sector, while its focus on creative and trend forecasting has never been stronger. LSB catches up with director Gurdev Mattu to find out more about the future plans.
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ashion UK certainly enjoyed a successful 2017, buoyed by investment in the business and solid growth in Europe. As well as top selling product featuring licences such as Minecraft and Pokémon, plus brands from Disney and Warner Bros., the apparel licensee achieved recognition from the industry as it scooped a brace of awards: Best Children’s Apparel Range at The Licensing Awards and Best Brand Licensed Children’s Range at the Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards. On top of this, the acquisition of London-based
LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2018
apparel specialist Global Licensing was revealed in June, giving Fashion UK yet another string to its not inconsiderable bow. Gurdev Mattu, director of Fashion UK, explains to LSB: “We saw that a lot of our brand values synchronised with those of Global Licensing and knew that joining the two together would create a stronger team and offering. “We’re always keen to grow and acquiring Global Licensing has allowed us to do that in a really interesting way. We’ve been able to utilise the combined expertise of our teams to break into new markets and expand geographically. We’re really looking forward to our continued development as a whole entity.” Fashion UK prides itself on its strong creative, and the addition of Global Licensing looks set to strengthen this part of the business even further. Gurdev is understandably keen that the company keeps up its good reputation of not just following trends, but leading on them. “Many licensors and retailers now see our creative as being the best in the industry,” he says. “We have made significant investment in trend forecasting and marrying this up with upcoming