Ted Baker

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For the Australian rules footballer named Ted Baker see Ted Baker (footballer)

Ted Baker
Type	Public
Founded	Glasgow (1988)
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Key people	Ray Kelvin , CEO
Industry	Apparel Stores
Products	Men's clothing Women's clothing
Revenue	£208.2 million (2006)
Employees	1,286
Website	www.tedbaker.co.uk

Ted Baker is a British clothing retail company, known for applying twists to their products, and has become a UK designer label through word of mouth rather than advertising.^[1]

1 History
2 Competition
3 Stores in the UK
4 International Stores
5 Wholesale Operations
6 Trivia
7 References
8 External links

[edit] History

Ted Baker's managing director Ray Kelvin started his first store in March 1988 in Glasgow, quickly followed by Manchester and Plymouth and Nottingham.^[2] Initially Ted Baker exclusively offered men's dress shirts, and offered dry cleaning with every shirt they sold. Ray had limited funding available, so rather than advertise, he relied on word of mouth and the creation of a personality to anchor the brand.

As a consequence, Ted Baker grew more successful as a brand (dry cleaning was no longer offered as the label grew).

Two years later, a store in Covent Garden opened and Kelvin bought the company outright from part-owners Goldberg and Sons. Additional stores in Soho, Nottingham and Leeds opened in 1994. In 1995, Ted Baker launched a new range, Ted Baker Woman.

Ted Baker has since become a global brand, which produces men's, women's and children's clothing. The company also produces fragrances, eyewear and accessories. It sells a range of cosmetics under the name Ted Baker Bodywear; these are marketed exclusively through Boots in the UK. Ted Baker recently released two mobile phones in the UK - the Ted Baker Button and Ted Baker Needle, in association with Samsung and HTC respectively.

[edit] Competition

Ted Baker is in main competition with Paul Smith, a UK based fashion designer, among other brands such as Austin Reed, Diesel and All Saints.

[edit] Stores in the UK

Ted Baker has a number of stand-alone stores in the UK which include:

London (Regent Street, Cheapside, Fenwick Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Canary Wharf, Floral St. (Covent Garden), Kings Road, Langley Court (Covent Garden), Westbourne Grove, Richmond).

Ashford Designer Outlet ((Ashford, Kent))
Bath
Belfast Victoria Square
Birmingham (Caxton Gate)
Bluewater
Braintree (Freeport designer outlet)
Gatwick Airport
Glasgow
Guildford (High St.)
Heathrow Airport
Kingston (Bentalls Wood Street - Department Store)
Leeds (Victoria Street)
Liverpool (Button Street)
Manchester (Deansgate, Selfridges Exchange Square, Selfridges Trafford and the UK's largest store at New Cathedral St)
Newcastle Upon Tyne (within Fenwick department store)
Nottingham (Bridlesmith Gate)
Portsmouth (Gunwharf Quays Designer Outlet)
Richmond
Sheffield (Meadowhall)
Stansted Airport
Swindon (McArthur Glen designer outlet)
York (McArthur Glen designer outlet)

The Ted Baker range is also sold by other retailers (which it refers to as Ted Baker Trustees) in particular in stores of the John Lewis Partnership and House of Fraser. Ted Baker also has a store at Bicester Village Retail Outlet. Furthermore there is a Ted Baker concession in Selfridges London which was last refurbished in 2005.

The company's range is also available online at Ted Baker Online where a selection of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel and accessories can be viewed. Ted Baker designs are also available from myriad internet sources besides Ted Baker's own website, however generally only a small selection of accessories are on offer. The company does have a restricted number of major internet retailers offering its designs such as Figleaves, KJ Beckett, and ASOS. These sites offer wider collections of Ted Baker clothing and accessories.

[edit] International Stores

Ted Baker has stores and outlets in the rest of Europe, United States of America, Australasia, Asia and the Middle East. Indeed by mid-2007 it had expanded into Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, and Taiwan, with its Australian flagship store opening in Melbourne during September 2007.

[edit] Wholesale Operations

Ted Baker has expanded its high street presence through its wholesale business which in 2006 covered Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Norway, Greece, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium as well as the British Isles.

Wholesale operations commenced in 1994 through careful selection of retail stores. Indeed Ted Baker refers to its wholesale customers as "Ted Baker Trustees", entrusting the brand into the hand picked partners, who are asked to translate into the local language and culture, without losing any of the brand's qualities.

[edit] Trivia

Ted Baker featured in the 21st James Bond film Casino Royale. A specially designed Ted Baker store was erected, fully merchandised, and dismantled on the film's set in Prague. The entire work took 3 days. The Ted Baker store features in a scene at Miami airport.^[3]