Clarks (shoe retailer)
C. & J. Clark International Limited is a British footwear manufacturer and retailer founded in 1825 by Cyrus Clark in Street, Somerset, where its headquarters remain. As of October 2023, the brand has 320 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and hundreds of franchises located in the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company also sells through third-party distribution.
The Clarks brand is best known for its Desert Boot and Wallabee shoes, as well as its collection of school shoes, particularly for children aged 4–12 years.
Clarks manufactured its products in the United Kingdom until 2005, when it began moving some production to the Far East. The company closed its last domestic factory in 2019 as it reported a £84.4 million loss. In November 2020, it was announced that Clarks would be rescued by the Hong Kong-based private equity firm LionRock Capital, and would enter a company voluntary arrangement. The deal meant the company would be out of the Clark family's control for the first time in its history. In February 2023, LionRock Capital sold its remaining indirect stake in Clarks to Viva China Holdings Limited.
History
1825–1862 – Rugs, slippers and prizes
Origins of C. & J. Clark can be traced back to 1821 when Cyrus Clark entered into a partnership with a Quaker cousin in the trade of fellmongering, wool-stapling and tanning in Street, Somerset. By 1825, this partnership had been dissolved and Cyrus relocated to a site on the High Street in Street, utilising premises that belonged to his father-in-law to exploit his idea of making rugs out of sheepskins instead of pulling off the wool. C. & J. Clark recognise this as the beginning of their business and continue to occupy the site upon which Cyrus started to this very day.By 1828, as the business had grown, Cyrus appointed his younger brother James as an apprentice. Educated away from Street, James was meant to be apprentice to a chemist in Bath, but successfully pleaded with his parents to let him stay in Street and help Cyrus. In 1828 to 1829, whilst serving this apprenticeship, James began utilising the offcuts that were too short for making rugs to produce slippers. The slippers were made using outworkers who collected materials from the factory, assembled footwear in workshops at home and returned the finished product for payment. This trade rapidly evolved, providing James with a legitimate claim to an equal partnership in the business when his apprenticeship was served in 1833. Thereafter, it traded as C. & J. Clark.
The brothers developed national and international trade and were notably innovative, winning the gold medal at the Great Exhibition in 1851 for their gutta percha elongated galosh.
1863–1903 – Riding the storm
A couple of bad years that combined volatile market conditions, a certain lack of financial rigour and questionable planning brought the business to the brink of bankruptcy in 1863. The local Quaker community stepped in and part of the bailout deal was the nomination of James' eldest son, William Stephens Clark to the helm of C. & J. Clark.William Clark put in place an accelerated repayment plan that saw indebtedness drop considerably to 1873 when he became a partner in the business with his father James. For the first time in Britain, William mechanised the shoemaking process and went on to establish C. & J. Clark both as a pioneer of new technology and as a champion of footwear innovation. James withdrew from the partnership in 1889, to be replaced by his son Francis, William's younger brother.
In line with the family's Quaker values, the capital was also extended beyond the factory to benefit social initiatives in Street: a school was founded so that young men and women could combine working in the factory with continuing their education, a theatre was opened, a library was built, along with an open-air swimming pool and town hall. Playing fields were established for the benefit of all and low-cost housing was provided by the company for its employees.
1904–1945 – Style, technology and foot measuring
In 1903 the partnership arrangement was discontinued in favour of a private limited company. This enabled the succession to the third generation of family members as children of William Stephens Clark became 'life directors' alongside Francis and himself. Tasked with specific responsibilities, Alice Clark, John Bright Clark and Roger Clark developed distinct roles. Brothers John Bright and Roger Clark studied American making processes and techniques with a view to appointing a suitable candidate experienced in the American factory system that they might bring to Street. John Walter Bostock from Lynn, Massachusetts was recruited in 1904. The implementation was a resounding success and Bostock was made a director of the company in 1928.A London Office, opened in the West End in 1908, supplemented the shoemaking knowledge with style information. A reputation for high-quality goods available in the latest fashions, was established in the early 1910s, and remained until the Second World War. A premium quality 'Tor' range was produced on the principles of standard lines, followed by a range of affordable fashionable footwear called 'Wessex'. The company had its first national press advertisement in 1934 and entered formally into retailing in 1937 through the acquisition of Abbotts chain of shops based around London and the provinces. "Peter Lord" was created by Hugh Bryan Clark as a retail brand to avoid alarming agents or alerting competitors to the company's activities. It steadily evolved into a national network of stores. Growing awareness that 'bad feet' were the product of ill-fitting shoes determined Bostock to devise a new shoe fitting system based on the detailed analysis of thousands of foot measurements taken from local school children. In line with the findings the company launched its new children's ranges in 1945 with a choice of four width fittings, simultaneously with the new Clarks foot gauge that acted as a scientific measuring instrument to aid the shop assistant.
1946–1995 – Growth and challenges
Expansion of the business post-war was largely initiated by fourth-generation family members: Bancroft Clark, appointed managing director and chairman in 1942 and his cousins, Anthony Clark and Peter Clothier, accountable for Sales/Marketing and Manufacturing respectively.The start-up or acquisition of additional manufacturing facilities across the South West and South East of England and South Wales meant that the company's volume market share in the UK increased from 1.1 per cent in 1945 to 9 per cent by 1970.
Foreign manufacturing was also sought through agreements with existing domestic manufacturers: Ireland in the 1930s with Australia, Canada and South Africa added in the 1940s and 1950s. Nathan Clark negotiated a number of these agreements in his capacity as Overseas Manager until 1952.
Bancroft retired in 1967. His son, Daniel Clark succeeded Peter Clothier as managing director in 1973, with Anthony Clark remaining as chairman. He retired in 1974, when his son, Lance Clark, was appointed managing director of the manufacturing and wholesaling division. In 1974 Clarks bought the fashionable Ravel, Pinet and Mondaine. The company acquired "K" Shoes, based in Kendal, Cumbria to salvage it from a hostile takeover. The closure of factories started in 1978, and continued throughout the 1980s.
Daniel Clark resigned in 1986 replaced by John Clothier who remained CEO throughout the turbulent buy-out negotiations with Berisford International Plc, a properties commodities group that attempted to take the troubled company public. While the proposal was defeated by shareholders at the EGM convened on 7 May 1993 it was also decided to move away from direct family management to professional managers, who would rationalise the business, and would be more comfortable with making the changes needed for its recovery.
1996–2019: Worldwide growth and a global brand
The appointment of Tim Parker as CEO in 1996 was made on the initiation of the newly elected chairman, Roger Pedder. Clarks format was radically changed with the 'Act Your Shoe Size Not Your Age' Campaign in 1997, which contributed to a freshening of the brand.Completion of the transition from manufacturing to a wholesaling and branded retailing business was conducted by Parker's successor, Peter Bolliger, who became CEO in 2002. Closure of the company's remaining manufacturing interests meant that the last Clarks UK factory ceased production in 2005 followed by the last "K" factory in 2006. Production was relocated off-shore, using third party factories, predominantly located in Asia.
Transformation of retail and investment to modernise company infrastructure and systems was also completed. Street consequently remains the epicentre for company operations, a distribution facility having been constructed in the village in 2005 with the capacity to process 1 million pairs of shoes per week.
Former CEO, Melissa Potter, who was appointed in 2010, re-organized the business in four regions Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland, the re-launch in China, the move into India, the launch of the online business and the increased focus on building a global brand. Melissa Potter stepped down as CEO in September 2015. Non-executive chairman Thomas O’Neill lead the business until 2017 when Mike Shearwood was appointed as the new CEO. Then following Shearwood's resignation in June 2018, Stella David was announced as interim CEO. In February 2019, Giorgio Presca was announced as the new CEO, and David returned to her role on the board.
In May 2018, the company announced that it would build a new production plant next to its headquarters in Street, Somerset. The £3 million factory would see the latest in robot technology and create 80 jobs and produce over 300,000 pairs of Desert Shoes per year.