LONDON — End., the buzzy street and luxury retailer, is looking to declutter and get into growth mode again by embracing its highly curated roots under the ownership of Apollo Global Management.
That process could be turbocharged with a year-long 20th-anniversary celebration in 2025 featuring a steady stream of events, collaborations, and exclusive releases that have been in the works for over two years.
In an interview, End. chief executive officer Parker Gundersen said the celebration reinforces the retailer’s long-standing relationship with core customers and brand partners and boosts its visibility among those who are not always in the know.
A big collaboration with Solomon will be revealed in the first quarter. It will be followed by drops with Y-3, Represent, Bode, Aries, Needles, Adidas, And Wander, Asics, as well as a football kit with Umbro and a range of lifestyle offerings from Gregory Japan, among others.
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The second part of the 20th anniversary will focus on community engagement with a roster of different activations with the brands that have been with End. from Day One. Expect celebrities and brand founders to come into the stores for panel talks and product releases.
Since 2005 End. has expanded from one location in Newcastle to four more concept stores in London, Milan, Manchester, and Glasgow. In London and Milan, there is often a long line to get into the store, especially when limited-edition collaborations are being dropped.
“I don’t call them stores, I call them statements. It’s really where all that magic happens. People make that effort to come in. We want to give them something special,” said Gundersen, who until his arrival at End. in 2022 worked for over a decade at DFS, the selective retail arm of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
At the same time, End. has built a sizable online business attracting over 10 million monthly unique visitors for its curated selection of accessible and premium product mix.
End.’s in-house E by End collection will be prominently featured during the yearlong celebration, too. Gundersen said the team has been challenged to come up with unique and exciting products exclusive to each retail “statement.”
Gundersen said the secret sauce for End. to keep retail exciting for all these years is to have a team who have a passion for the product.
“What End. has been doing very well early on was building relationships with brands and a connection to their community. The culture and the vibe of End. is it’s very much about authenticity and credibility. Everybody here is so passionate about the product that we’re selling, and that resonates in all of the conversations. There’s a reason that I think the brands listen to us and are so keen to understand whether the team feels that the product is going to work,” he said.
That long-standing mutual trust is also how End. has access to what Gundersen called “tier zero energy products” that aren’t available anywhere else.
“You won’t see it in most places around the U.K., for sure. But even globally, it’s very limited,” he added.
Beyond buzzy drops, End. aims to stretch beyond being just a retailer to being a culture arbiter.
Over the years Gundersen said End. has helped surface subcultures and educate its audience about niche genres and different groups of people out there doing things differently.
“I always tell the brands, do not look at us as a distributor, or a retailer in the traditional sense. We are a partner for you, and our main role is amplifying you with our community,” he added.
Looking ahead, Gundersen said curation will be key for End. to grow amid a turbulent retail landscape.
“As a business, we grew very fast, and then we hit the COVID-19 period, and it was just almost too much growth. We didn’t have the opportunity to invest in the infrastructure and make ourselves a little more scalable to go through the period we’re in now, where the market isn’t quite as robust,” he added.
Gundersen revealed that End. has invested heavily in merchandising functions and planning. The buying is getting more sophisticated in terms of understanding “what’s working from a technical and financial sense.”
In October, End. was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management from The Carlyle Group, which purchased a majority stake in the retailer in 2021, at that time valuing the business at 750 million pounds, or $951 million.
End. founders Christiaan Ashworth and John Parker have since stepped back from the business.
At the time, Gundersen said the investment would help reduce the debt, allowing it to “further strengthen the balance sheet and forward cash flow as we look to reach our next stage of evolution as a brand.”
According to Companies House filings, End.’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization dropped 68 percent to 13 million pounds in the year ending March 31, 2023, while sales plateaued at 221.1 million pounds year-over-year.
End. didn’t disclose full accounts in the year ending March 31, 2024.
“We are going back to what made us extremely successful on the way up. This new era is really about having these tough discussions with brands,” said Gundersen.
“We’ve done a lot of work to clean up the catalog and the inventory. Customers weren’t finding the stuff they wanted. It was just too noisy. If the customer is not looking for it, or we don’t believe in it, it might be time to take a little bit of a break. I think the brands actually respect us a lot more for that. We’re not a big platform trying to dominate the world. Our focus is serving that core customer,” he added.
Physical expansion is on the horizon. He confirmed that End. is looking at several potential locations around the globe.
“We’re always out looking to see where the right spaces are. We set a high bar. It needs to be inspiring. We want people to feel that it is an End. project. We will do more. But I don’t have an intention of ever having an endless set of stores. Right now, honestly, the focus has been supporting our existing ‘statements’ because we weren’t getting enough product in to meet the demand,” Gundersen added.
Online sales data is informing where End. should look. For example, it picked Milan as its first international flagship outside of the U.K. because the retailer has had a good base of customers there for a long time.
“We knew there was a lot of interest. It’s a huge fashion capital, so maybe a little bit of risk going into an established market like that. We took over an old bank [on central Via Mercanti.] It’s not on the main high street. But everybody who goes there says that place has this energy, and it’s just become this destination throughout Italy. We have customers coming in from all over Europe that just want to come and experience,” he said.
“So if we can do that in other locations, that’s a badge of success for us in the coming years,” added Gundersen.
According to Gundersen, End.’s core demographic is predominantly male, around 18 to 34 years old. They are well-informed about the latest trends and are interested in the culture behind them.
“They’re coming to End. to discover new brands. That is our responsibility to make sure that there’s real credibility behind the brands that we’re offering. When you see somebody carrying an End. shopping bag, you know that they’ve made that choice,” he added.
For those who are not always in the know, Gundersen believes End. should double down on its content arm, and raise its voice to reach out to them.
“I don’t think we need to change the message at all. We’re proud of who we are. It’s just probably telling that story to a little broader audience through a few different channels. As we get into the 20th now, we will celebrate what we have achieved, but it’s also about looking ahead at where we want to go,” he added.
