Victoria Beckham, the pop star, model and Wag who reinvented
herself as a fashion designer, has topped a list of Britain’s 100 most successful
entrepreneurs of 2014.
The woman formerly known as Posh Spice came in at No 1 in the
list compiled for business magazine Management Today. The rankings are drawn up
by assessing turnover growth and job creation over the past five years.
The magazine said of the designer, who opened a 6,000 sq ft
(550 sq metre) boutique in Mayfair, central London, for her fashion brand last
month: “Beckham is living proof that celebrity may be the most marketable
commodity of all.”
Philip Beresford, who drew up the list, said it was “her
finely tuned business acumen” that won her the top spot.
Since the 40-year-old mother-of-four and former Spice Girl
set up her fashion business five years ago, her staff has grown from three to a
100-strong team with the latest turnover at £30m.
Offering leather credit card holders for £150, T-shirts for
more than £700 and handbags for up to £18,000, she has seen sales growth of
2,900% and employment growth of 3,233%. “Deservedly she is number one in these
two crucial measurements for success,” Beresford said.
The accolade follows her topping of a poll to find the
greatest style icon at London fashion week in September.
Beckham spoke of her transformation from singer to designer
in a recent Guardian interview, saying: “First time around I felt famous, but
now I feel successful.”
She added: “I used to wear clothes which would make me stand
out and now I don’t so much because I don’t feel I have anything to prove.”
Born Victoria Adams in Harlow, Essex, she burst on to the
pop scene with the Spice Girls in the mid 1990s and married the England
footballer David Beckham in 1999. The couple’s joint wealth is estimated at
£380m, and she is credited as the driving force behind “Brand Beckham”.
She joined the other Spice Girls for a world tour in 2007/8,
but chose not to perform a solo song, instead posing as though in a fashion
show, in a nod to where her real ambitions lay.
Beckham launched her eponymous fashion label in 2008, and a
lower priced diffusion label in 2011. As a businesswoman, she has demonstrated
herself to be “an adept exploiter of her own celeb value”, according to the
list. By 2011 she was a fixture at New York fashion week.
Her Dover Street shop opened in September, but she missed
the official opening to speak to the UN general assembly in New York about her
role in the UNAids campaign. Since then a steady stream of celebrities have
been through its doors. It has been likened to an art gallery, with sparse
interior, clothes hanging from chains on the ceiling or a jagged rail, and no
cash tills as all purchases are completed through an iPad.
The “burgeoning entrepreneurial talent” of Britain’s Asian
community is also evident in the list, said Management Today, with nine
individuals or families making the rankings. They are led by brother-and-sister
team Amit and Meeta Patel, in second place, just pipped by Beckham. The
siblings’ London-based pharma operation, Auden McKenzie, specialises in the
development, licensing and marketing of niche generic medicines, and is at the
cutting edge of work into areas such as treating heroin addiction.
Mahmud Kamani, 50, of online fashion site Boohoo.com, is
ranked third, while Julian Dunkerton 49, of clothing chain SuperGroup, claims
fourth spot.
Apart from Beckham, the list includes 14 other women, up
from 11 when the rankings were last published in 2011. Among them are software
entrepreneur Suzanne Marshall-Forsyth and Cathie Paver, founder of Paver Shoes.
The top 100 were “real job creators”, said Management Today.
“In five years, they have added more than 61,556 employees to their payrolls
taking their head count to 158,189. This represents a 64% rise, and shows that
in the critical area of productivity,(in which much of the UK economy is
notably lacklustre) our MT 100 members are right on top of their game.”
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