Loss-making Eton College uniform supplier gets cash injection

A tailor to Eton College has received a £600,000 cash injection from its US private equity owners after it racked up losses during the pandemic.

New & Lingwood, which is one of several to provide uniforms for the school, posted a £760,000 loss in the year to January 2022, its latest accounts showed, broadly flat on the previous year.

Its owner, POP Capital, provided £578,000 in funding and gave its commitment to support the company in the future.

The 158-year-old tailor says it has served “many thousands of Etonians, in many instances five or more generations of the same family”.

As well as selling uniforms to the college, New & Lingwood operates stores in Eton, London and New York, where it sells a range of upmarket clothes and shoes, including jackets for up to £1,295 and dressing gowns for as much as £3,500. Hugh Laurie wore one of its Peacock dressing gowns in the BBC series The Night Manager.

Its original store on Jermyn Street in London opened in 1922 but was destroyed during the Blitz. The company opened a new store on a different site on Jermyn Street after the war ended.

Freddie Briance, chief executive of New & Lingwood, said: “As a private company we do not comment on investors or their commitments to the company.

“Like all retail businesses, the pandemic was challenging. However, New & Lingwood traded steadily through the period and we were able to pivot to online retail sales, which was a positive outcome for us from that difficult time.

“Online sales have continued to grow alongside brick and mortar sales since then. In recent months trading has allowed us to open a second store in London.

“We are facing the same supply chain pressures as the rest of the industry but that has normalised now.”

In 2015 it was bought by US private enquiry company POP Capital, which says it specialises in brands that target high-net worth individuals.