Jigsaw to open more menswear stores, expand in Europe

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Mar 21, 2016

Jigsaw, the British men's and women's fashion retailer, is planning to expand into the European market, starting with Switzerland.

In an interview with The Telegraph, CEO Peter Ruis said: “Switzerland has a good economy and no matter what’s happening in Europe they will manage it.”

Speaking of Brexit, he said: “In purely economic terms and because of the distraction, it is better to stay in Europe, because no one knows what will happen if we are out. There is only one certainty from leaving and that will be chaos for a couple of years because financial markets hate anything that is unstabling, and no one is going to pay a retailer to help fund the difficulties while everyone figures it out."

Ruis is aiming to grow revenues at Jigsaw, which has 77 shops in the UK, four in the US, five in Australia, two in South Africa and three in the Middle East, from £100m to £500m. The company will now build its Australian business to 30 stores after buying back its license in the country. For the European expansion, it will concentrate on department store concessions.

Somewhat cryptically, Ruis said the company has no plans to enter Scandinavia, because of “their different body shape”.

Three years ago, Jigsaw relaunched menswear. It currently has five menswear stores but intends to raise that number to twenty. Ruis also plans to add around 10 womenswear stores for each of the next five years to take the total to 125, he told The Telegraph. Though he denied that the company is exploring a sale, he said founder John Robinson would want to sell some of his 80% stake at some point.