The journey from a field to a new £20m headquarters

Clothing brand Joules was started by Tom Joules in a field 30 years ago. This year, the company is moving to a new £20m headquarters outside of Market Harborough, which has space for 50 employees.

Joules has 124 stores in the UK and Ireland and its clothing is stocked by another 2000 retail outlets throughout the world. While many clothing retailers have seen a dip in their sales, Joules has increased its revenue by 17.2% in the year to May 2019, though growth was less during the remainder of 2019.

Joules has prospered by listening to what their customers want and diversifying. For example, it was found that 80% of Joules customers own dogs, so the firm started a product line for dogs. Vision Express sells Joules branded spectacles and the company has toiletry licensing deals with cosmetics giant Boots. Tom Joules says:

“We’ve always tried to give our customers more and over the years we’ve built up an amazing following – there are 2 million customers on our database, sharing a love of a particular life, a contemporary country lifestyle.”

In the field in 1989 where Joules started, the clothes were displayed on a pasting table. Nowadays, Joules’ garment rails supplier makes sure that the stores and warehouses have efficient equipment to hold the many types of garments Joules sells.

Unlike many British retailers, Joules is optimistic about the future and is expected to experience further growth in the UK as well as in America.

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