Kurt Geiger’s Expansion Plan Has a New Constraint — Skills
When Neil Clifford, Chief Executive of Kurt Geigerspoke to the BBC on its Big boss interview podcast, he framed the company’s defining strategic shift in stark terms. “It’s why we survived, is probably the reality,” Clifford said, reflecting on Kurt Geiger’s move away from being a UK-focused shoe retailer towards a global, handbag-led business.
That survival story matters now because Kurt Geiger is no longer trying to outrun decline. It is trying to scale growth — internationally, operationally, and culturally — at a moment when the biggest constraint is no longer product demand, but people.
The Real Impact
The commercial impact of Kurt Geiger’s transformation is already visible. The company is approaching £500 million in annual revenue, with profitability rebuilt after coming close to collapse during the pandemic. The US has overtaken the UK as its most important growth engine, with around 70% of American sales coming from handbags and the brand stocked in more than 400 department stores.
That shift was deliberate. Clifford told the BBC that relying on footwear alone had become structurally limiting. “Shoes in themselves is quite a difficult category,“he said.”Thirty per cent of your store has to be a stockroom, which you pay rent for… and you need a lot of staff because every single customer needs to be served.”
Moving into handbags, jewelry, and accessories changed the economics of the business. It reduced reliance on large physical footprints, lifted margins, and allowed Kurt Geiger to position himself below true luxury pricing — selling £200 handbags into a market where premium brands have sharply increased prices over the past decade.
The diversification also proved critical during COVID. “We probably did five years’ worth of work in 18 months to survive,“Clifford said.”It made us faster, less afraid of making riskier decisions, and more creative.”
That acceleration reshaped the company into something more resilient — but also more complex to run.
Where the Pressure Is Building
As Kurt Geiger expands internationally, pressure is building on three fronts.
The first is exposure. Roughly 70% of manufacturing still takes place in China, with some production shifted to Cambodia and Vietnam after earlier US tariff shocks. Margins are thinner, and global supply chains remain fragile.
The second is positioning. Kurt Geiger sits deliberately in the “affordable premium” space — below luxury, above mass market. That creates opportunity as luxury prices climb, but it also demands constant investment in design, value, and service to avoid being squeezed from both ends.
The third — and most acute — pressure is talent.
Retail is the UK’s largest private-sector employer, yet Clifford is blunt about the gap between education and work-ready skills. “Our education system is not really fit for purpose now,“he said.”It’s not really helping young people train and develop themselves.”
Other UK retailers expanding internationally face the same constraint. As brands scale faster across markets, the availability of work-ready commercial, digital, and creative talent increasingly determines how quickly — and how safely — that growth can happen.
For a business that relies on sales, buying, merchandising, digital, and design expertise, that gap is no longer theoretical. It is operational risk.
What Happens Next?
Rather than wait for policy reform, Kurt Geiger has moved into territory most retailers avoid. The company has built an in-house academy at its London headquarters, created a government-recognized curriculum, and recruited senior managers to teach practical skills across retail disciplines.
The academy began as a response to COVID disruption but is now becoming infrastructure. Kurt Geiger is digitizing the programme, investing around £250,000, and plans to reach up to 5,000 young people nationwide. Graduates are expected to feed into apprenticeships and full-time roles across the business.
At the same time, international expansion is accelerating. Kurt Geiger is opening more stores in the US, continuing rapid growth in Mexico, and planning new entries into Europe, India, and Australia. Clifford acknowledged past failures — including an unsuccessful US push in 2011 — but views them as formative rather than deterrent.
“Recognizing that maybe failure isn’t the end but part of learning was a good part of the company culture,” he said.
The risk now is execution at scale. Expanding into new markets while training a new generation of staff requires capital, discipline, and managerial depth. The academy is intended to supply that depth — but only if it keeps pace with growth.
The Bottom Line
Kurt Geiger’s next challenge is not whether consumers will buy his handbags or whether loafers replace sneakers. It is whether the company can build the skills, confidence, and leadership pipeline needed to sustain its ambition.
By pairing international expansion with direct investment in education, Kurt Geiger is quietly redefining what resilience looks like in retail. The strategy reduces dependence on the UK high street and positions talent development as a core growth lever, not a corporate side project.
What Clifford said on the BBC matters less as commentary than as signal: the next phase of growth will be decided not just by where Kurt Geiger sells, but by who it trains to run the business next.
Growth isn’t being limited by demand — it’s being limited by readiness
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