Faith is a UK shoe company[1] that was started in 1964 by a London accountant called Samuel Faith and his wife Terry. In the following years new stores were gradually added, primarily in the South of England. After Samuel's retirement, his son Jonathan acquired the family business.
In the 1980s the brand launched its prosperous 'faith solo' brand, taking styles and ideas straight from the catwalk and selling them to a mainstream audience.
In the 1980s the company also began a programme of opening concessions within selected Dorothy Perkins and Top Shop stores.
In 1996 a contract was entered into with Top Shop for Faith to open a concession in every single Top Shop store in the UK and Ireland. In the late 1990s Debenhams also approached Faith with a long-term view to becoming the main concession partner for young fashion ladies footwear. This form of expansion therefore became the only means of growth for the business for several years until 2001.
By the year 2001, concessions accounted for 75% of sales mainly through the Arcadia stores of Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge.
In the autumn of 2001, Arcadia then served notice that they intended to exercise the termination clause in the contract. Faced with this loss of revenue, the Company had no choice but to embark on a substantial programme of opening own-brand stores.
Topshop asked Faith to leave its stores in the summer of 2003 as they found there would be a higher profit in producing its own brand of footwear. This led to a huge expansion of both Faith branches and profits. Latterly there was only one Faith concession within Topshop (at Oxford Circus).
In 2004 there were approximately 1700 employees in the UK and Ireland, with further concessions operating under licence in the Middle East. There was also a division servicing the main UK mail order catalogues, such as Freemans and Littlewoods.
The brand celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2004. In December 2004, Faith Shoes was bought for £65 Million by private equity group Bridgepoint Capital, and some years later entered into a pre-pack administration agreement in 2008.
In April 2010, all stores were closed as part of a new administration procedure. Prior to administration it had 72 stand alone branches, as well as concessions in Allders, Debenhams, Sunwin House, and Beatties.
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Jonathan Faith is an Orthodox Jew. Jonathan gave £650,000 to charity upon selling his business and 100% of his income at present. Jonathan financially supports Aish, an Orthodox Jewish organization aimed urging Jews, especially younger Jews, to become more observant. He appeared on BBC Four's Jews, which showed his Jewish outreach efforts. He and his wife Sharon have three sons and a daughter, Jessica. Jessica and Jonathan's eldest son Joseph, are also practicing Orthodox Jew.
The other directors at the time of the sale were Jacqueline and Paul O'Neill, and Lionel Stock.
After the sale of Faith, Jacqueline O'Neill took the role of managing director before retiring in 2007. Her husband Paul O'Neill was also on the board of directors and dealt with property, leading Faith to many Retail Award triumphs. He left in 2008 to focus on other goals. Lionel Stock left the company at the time of the sale and continued to work with Jonathan Faith on other projects.
In 2008 the business was bought out of pre-pack administration by John Kinnaird failed Dolcis owner. The business lasted less than two years through lack of investment and commitment of the new owners.
On 22 April 2010, Mazars LLP were appointed as joint administrators of Faith Shoe Group Limited. The website is no longer taking any orders and all branches are now closed. Concessions will continue to trade as normal for the time being. The website has also ceased trading and is now closed.[2] Debenhams PLC purchased the Faith name, shop fittings and remaining stock.
In April 2010 Faith Footwear Ltd after the company went into administration 70 stores were closed, and more than 1700 staff lost their jobs[3]. Inspired by the former Dorchester Woolworth's Store Manager Claire Robertson's success in reopening her store as 'Wellworths' the Chelmsford branch of Faith got together and reopened by their store on 3 July 2010[4] as 'Hope'.
In the official press release Store Manager Justina Pay stated: "We were inspired by Claire Robertson and her success in turning her old Dorchester Woolworths store into Wellworths, a great example of someone who has had a massive success from a very sad redundancy. Customers were genuine in their sadness that our stores were closing and were concerned as to where they could buy quality shoes from, we knew we had to 'do a Wellworths' and try and bring it back!"[5]. The Hope Footwear[6] story made international press, here is Justina talking on BBC Essex Radio[7].