New Chinese owner tries on Clarks shoes for size
The struggling shoe empire has been bought by a fund and will put its best foot forward in the Asian country
6 March 2021 • 3:00pm
Clarks’ new Chinese owners are not afraid to admit that they had no idea how many shoes the 195-year-old firm sells each year.
“If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have got it completely wrong,” says Tom Pitts from Lionrock Capital, the Hong Kong private equity fund that has fronted the takeover by Olympic gymnast-turned-retail billionaire Li Ning.
The answer, 40 million pairs, “really turned our heads”, Pitts adds. “I would have come way underneath that number.”