Boden mulls City float

THE soaraway success of Boden, upmarket mail order outfitter to the archetypal Fulham Family, will see the clothes retailer open on the High Street backed with funds from a possible stock market float.

Latest figures from Boden reveal the success of clothing west London's inner suburban middle classes and their children brought a 42% leap in sales to £86m in 2004 and a near-doubling of profits to £10.4m.

A share of a £3.8 million dividend and 30% rise in salary to £262,000 took 44-year-old founder, chairman and controlling shareholder Johnnie Boden's take for the year to more than £2.1m.

With sales growing at more than 20% this year, it is now understood Boden plans to buck the High Street trend of falling consumer confidence to take its mix of printed linens, jerseys, cottons and towelling beachwear into mainstream retailing.

Buoyed by the success of a small pilot store in North Acton, the company which has grown fast on the back of the internet is planning its bricks-and-mortar assault initially in Chiswick, Fulham or Putney.

Managing director Julian Granville, 38, said: 'We are testing various retail formats. It is a risky move because it is a different business model to mail order and there is a risk of cannibalisation [of existing custom].

'But we believe there is a prima facie case because, for every one mail order customer, there are two who won't buy mail order. We won't be making any decisions on the rollout until we have finished testing but, over the next couple of years, we will be looking at a number of stores in London and mid-sized provincial towns.'

Granville indicated Boden would need to raise money from capital markets and 'options under review' include a float.

Current investors include top City fund manager Crispin Odey and the private equity interests of Crispin Tweddell, the founder of the Pitcher & Piano bars chain. Etonian Johnnie Boden launched the business with an inheritance in 1991 after failing as a stockbroker with BZW and Warburg, initially concentrating on menswear and transforming the dress-down Friday wardrobe of City professionals which earned him the sobriquet 'messiah of mail-order moleskins'.

But womenswear now accounts for 60% of sales and the Mini Boden catalogue of childrenswear 30%.