Founded in 1997 by Mark Neale; Mountain Warehouse has grown from a single outlet store to over 330 stores in the UK, Europe, New Zealand and North America.
History
In 1997, Mountain Warehouse was founded as the retail partner of Karrimor International, the UK based outdoor clothing and equipment manufacturer.[3] Investment company 21 Invest (now Investindustrial) were Karrimor's lead investor.[4]
21 Invest sold Karrimor's core business to South African leisure group Cullinan Holdings in February 1999.[5] The stores, which were initially branded Karrimor, were subsequently re-branded to Mountain Warehouse. Under the new name, Mountain Warehouse began selling multi-branded outdoor clothing and equipment as well as its recently launched own brand of clothing.[6]
In August 2002, NBGI Private Equity acquired the business from 21 Invest and managing Director Mark Neale, buying a majority stake in the company. CEO Neale reinvested most of his proceeds into the new acquisition. In the years that NBGI worked with Mountain Warehouse, their own brand product offering increased from 5% to 80%.[7]
In July 2007, Mountain Warehouse management around Neale bought out NBGI Private Equity for £15m, backed by Icelandic investment fund KCAJ.[8]
In August 2010, the private-equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, LDC, took a 23% minority stake in the business as part of another £47m buyout by Mountain Warehouse management.[9]
In November 2013, the management team led by founder and CEO Mark Neale bought out minority shareholder LDC to take full ownership of the retail chain. Mr Neale personally owns 85% of the business. The £85m deal was backed by the Royal Bank of Scotland and asset management firm Alcentra.[10]
in 2017, Mountain Warehouse Holdings Limited, set up a new company ‘Zakti Activeware’ which was the new name for ‘Mountain Warehouse Active’ range, and transferred a lot of stock to the new stores.
In 2018, Mountain Warehouse Holdings Limited, set up another new company ‘Neon Sheep’ to break into the accessories market and so far is doing much better than Zakti Activeware.
Mountain Warehouse has over 330 stores in the UK, North America, Europe and New Zealand, including stores in Dublin, Ireland, Vienna, Austria, and stores in Poland including Warsaw.
The first Mountain Warehouse store opened in 1997. By August 2002 Mountain Warehouse had opened a further 13 stores in factory outlet centres in the UK and one in Vienna, as well as three concession stores in UK garden centres.[4]
The London Covent Garden store was the first of Mountain Warehouse's high street stores. By 2019 Mountain Warehouse opened a further 9 stores in London, located in popular areas such as Regent Street, Fulham and Wimbledon.
Mountain Warehouse has grown from a stock clearance business selling only branded products to a business that sells mainly own brandclothing, footwear and equipment.[19] In 2004 own brands including Mountain Life, Parallel and Snapdragon made up 10% of the business's products but by 2007 own brand products made up 65%.[10]
In 2010 the retailer introduced a more technical clothing range, Mountainlife Extreme. The Mountainlife Extreme clothing range was designed to compete with higher end brands such as The North Face and Berghaus.[20]
The Mountainlife and Parallel branding has gradually been phased out with all clothing, footwear and equipment now branded with Mountain Warehouse. Mountainlife Extreme was replaced by Mountain Warehouse Extreme, with footwear, accessories and equipment also included in the range.
