Cath Kidston Sales Soar

Pretty motifs and pleasurable, nostalgic patterns do the trick! Profits at homeware and fashion firm boosted to £4.6m for the year to March. Famous for its floral prints, Cath Kidston is currently enjoying a bumper time, with profits in the year to March growing to £4.6 million from £2.9 million the year before. Sales have also seen a major uplift, increasing from £19.2 million last year to £31.3 million this year. There are 27 Cath Kidston stores in the UK and Ireland, with the retailer opening ten outlets in the last year.

Cath Kidston Ltd was founded in 1993 when designer Cath Kidston opened a tiny shop in London’s Holland Park. She began by selling the vintage fabrics, wallpapers and brightly-painted junk furniture she remembered fondly from her childhood. Her clever, witty re-working of traditional English country house style meant that her shop soon became a cult success.
Gradually Cath began to design her own prints and products. One of the first was a printed ironing board cover – practical, quirky and with a distinctive floral print; it came to epitomize the Cath Kidston look. The product base has expanded steadily to include an extensive range of homewares as well as women’s fashion and accessories and the 2008 launch of the Cath Kids brand.

Over the years Cath’s high-profile collaborations have included creating tents with Milletts (2005-6), Nokia mobile phones with Carphone Warehouse (2006) and collectible radios with Roberts (2005 onwards). In 2008 she collaborated with Tesco to produce printed eco shopping bags made from plastic bottles to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care. The bags raised over £400,000 for the charity and saved almost 6 million plastic bottles from landfill. She has also published four books; most recently Make! in October 2008.

The business has expanded steadily to become the unique global lifestyle brand it is today. Currently there are 26 shops and concessions in the UK, two shops in the Republic of Ireland and five in Japan. Planned shop openings for 2009 include Liverpool in April, and the successful worldwide mail order and wholesale divisions continue to grow. Cath Kidston Ltd is one of the most influential and original design companies to emerge from the UK in recent years and celebrated its 15th Birthday in October 2008.