After Bardot fell into voluntary administration in November 2019, owners of fashion firm initially saw the future of the brand as operating a smaller retail footprint alongside a larger focus online.
However when potential investors got cold feet due to the impact of Covid-19 on the retail sector, CEO Basil Artemedes and founder and creative director Carol Skoufis saw an opportunity for a far more radical transformation.
Repurchased by the founder, and with all of its retail doors closed during the voluntary administration process, Bardot is relaunching as a pureplay online retailer – something that the pair had considered before but were unable to achieve.
The retail sector is currently undergoing a seismic shift in consumer behaviour and thus more and more retailers are moving their time, effort and resources towards online platforms, by either creating their own e-commerce platform or integrating their product/services onto essentially plug and play software.
“We’ve grown through the last 23 years as a retailer, and put a lot of focus on what we can do within the four walls of a store, From a design perspective, we want to define that core DNA and put it online without the constrictions on price and volume. We can take a different direction now and focus on quality and premium design.”
“I don’t want to be in the fast fashion market. I haven’t been wanting to do that for a while to be honest, it’s not what I believe in,” Skoufis
