Burton (retailer)
| File:Burton logo.gif | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | retail sale of clothing in specialised stores  |
| Predecessor | Debenhams |
| Founded | 1900 |
| Headquarters | London, England |
| Website | Burton |
Burton is a large United Kingdom high street clothing retailer. Owned by the Arcadia Group it has over 400 retail stores in the UK, making it one of the country's largest sellers of casual and formal menswear. Burton regularly include celebrities in their advertising, featuring various 'Burton Boys' over periods of the retailing calendar, targeting their market audience of 18-30 year old males. Music personalities such as Lemar and Trevor Nelson, and TV Presenter Steve Jones have all appeared in such campaigns. Notable sporting figures such as Joe Cole, Kevin Pietersen and Jenson Button have been used to attract young males, interested in this area. Michael Owen, possibly the Brand's most high profile patron, has had his own exclusive range of clothes since 2004.
The brand's current marketing slogan, going into the Autumn Winter collection for 2007, is 'All Things Considered' and a new logo (actually a redesign of a more traditional 'B' used by the brand in its early tailoring years) will be adopted as the main logo of the brand.
History
Burton was founded as a small tailors in Leeds by Montague Burton on his arrival in the UK as a refugee from Lithuania in 1900. It was the first brand of what would be known in 2006 as 'The Seven Network', a chain of highstreet clothes shops owned by The Arcadia Group, including Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Topman, Topshop, Wallis, Outfit, Miss Selfridge and most recently, Bhs (incorporating Tammy). It grew to become the world's largest clothing factory (at the time) in 1925, based in Leeds. Burton was the official shirt sponsor of Leeds United Football Club between 1986 and 1989. It grew further to include 14 factories and 600 shops, clothing 25% of England's men in the 1950s. Montague Burton offered men the chance to buy a full suit, which included jacket, trousers, waistcoat, shirt and underwear. This became known as 'The Full Monty'. Montague Burton's signature, and 'Fully Monty' slogans, are present in the current garment tags and care label designs.
Charity
In the lead up to the 2006 Fifa World Cup Burton worked closely with the Bobby Moore Foundation, an arm of Cancer Research UK, dealing with Bowel Cancer, the Cancer from which England's World Cup Winning Footballer, Bobby Moore, died. A Series of Red Tees were designed, bearing Moore lifting the World Cup in 1966, and one bearing a gold print of the Jules Rimet Trophy. Profits would be donated to the Bobby Moore Foundation. The Brand also sold Three Limited Edition Summer Tees, each designed by one of three current England World Cup players, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, and Michael Owen. Each designer incorporated aspects of their own lives and personalities, and £7.50 was donated to The Bobby Moore Foundation for every tee sold. Michael Owen also advertised the Bobby Moore Wristband, a £3 band sold instore, with all profits going to the Foundation. He was seen wearing the band during England's Group Game with Paraguay on the 10th June, 2006.
Staff
Staff working in the store are identifiable by their Centenary "B" Lanyards. A store's typical team will consist of a range of Sales Advisors, from the ages of 16 - 50+, giving a broad range of selling and service techniques. Younger Sales Advisors provide an important connection to the modern fashion market, offering support to experienced Sales Advisors, able to offer old fashioned traditional tailoring advice.
Concessions
In 2004/2005 Burton began to launch concessions within Dorothy Perkins Stores. The premise for these concessions are to provide the Burton brand to High Streets with no available Retail Units or to soft launch the brand as a test bed for forthcoming stores.