Tom Chapman (entrepreneur)

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Tom Chapman
OBE
Tom Chapman.png
Born
Thomas Watson Chapman

June 1963 (age 58)
Wimbledon, London
NationalityBritish
OccupationBusinessperson, entrepreneur, investor
Known forCo-founder of MATCHESFASHION.COM
Spouse(s) Ruth Chapman

Thomas Watson Chapman OBE (born June 1963 [1] ) is a British entrepreneur and investor. [2]

Contents

He co-founded luxury fashion online retailer Matchesfashion.com in 1987 and served as the company's co-CEO until 2015. [3] In 2017, Matches was acquired by Apax Partners in a deal that valued the company at $1 billion. [4]

Since 2017, he has been an early-stage investor with an investment portfolio that spans several industries including technology, healthcare, and fashion. [5] [2]

Early life

Born in Wimbledon, Chapman studied hotel and hospitality management before opening an independent fashion outlet. [6]

Career

Matchesfashion.com

In 1987, Chapman founded MATCHESFASHION.COM as a single store in Wimbledon Village. [3] At the age of 21, Chapman met Ruth Chapman and convinced her to join the business. [7] By 2011 MATCHESFASHION.COM was the largest independent fashion retailer in London with 14 stores. [3]

In 2007, the company was one of the first luxury brands to go online. [8] Chapman led the company's digital strategy and turned the business into a multi-channel e-commerce retailer. [9] [10]

Chapman said the original motivation for launching the website was to provide a single view of the stock as well as build a customer database and was initially surprised by the success of the website as a sales tool. [9] From the launch of the website, the business grew at up to 100 percent per year. [9] As of 2018, the company stocks over 450 brands shipping to 176 countries, making 95 percent of sales online and 85 percent internationally. [11]

In 2011, Chapman launched No. 23, a townhouse dedicated to private shopping to complement online retail. [12] In 2012, the company raised £20 million in venture capital from SEP and Highland Capital Partners at a valuation of £76 million. [13] In 2013, Chapman rebranded all Matches' physical stores MATCHESFASHION.COM to "unify" the brand. [14] [8]

In 2016, the company launched 90-minute delivery to shoppers in London. [11] In 2018, the business opened 5 Carlos Place, a five-storey townhouse combining luxury private shopping in a home environment with a broadcasting hub and events space. [15] Chapman was also responsible for introducing iPads into the company's stores, which accounted for more than 50 percent of in-store sales. [8]

In 2015, Chapman stepped down as joint chief executive to become joint chairman. [3]

MATCHESFASHION.COM was acquired by Apax Partners in 2017. [16] Chapman retains a minority stake in the business and remains on the company board. [7] [17]

Investment portfolio

Since 2017, Chapman has invested in multiple startups across a wide range industries in the UK and USA through his family office, the Chapman Office. [18] [19]

Chapman has invested in Seattle-based trucking start-up Convoy; skincare brand Heyday; fashion brand Universal Standard; baby food business Cerebelly; finance company IPSX; consumer personal care 'by Humankind'; feminine hygiene brand OHNE, personal male grooming company Hawthorne; and health-tech company Huma. [20] [5] [2] Chapman has also invested in Caliva, Plena and Harvest Health & Recreation. [18] [5] [2]

In February 2020, Chapman invested in CDLP, a Swedish menswear brand. [21] In the same year, he also invested in AI-driven sports app Second Spectrum; computer gaming platform Robin Games; training finance company Forte and customer analytics platform Contentsquare. [22]

Personal life

Married to Ruth Chapman, the couple have three children. [23] They have properties in London and Los Angeles, and have two dogs. [24] [2]

Chapman collects 20th-century furniture, art and antiques. [8]

In 2017, Tom Chapman received the Drapers Lifetime Achievement Award. [25] In 2018, Chapman was inducted into the Business of Fashion Hall of Fame. [3]

Tom and Ruth Chapman were both appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to the international fashion retail industry. [26]

Related Research Articles

Drapers is a business-to-business magazine and website covering the fashion retail sector. It was founded on 6 August 1887 to cover the women's clothing retail trade, but today spans the whole fashion retail sector, including wider retail issues such as digital transformation, technological advances and the management of supply chains.

Apax Partners British private equity firm

Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2017, the firm, including its various predecessors, have raised approximately $51 billion (USD) since 1981. Apax Partners is one of the oldest and largest private equity firms operating on an international basis, ranked the fourteenth largest private equity firm globally.

Pentland Group British company formed 1981

Pentland Group is a British privately owned global company that owns and invests in, primarily, retail and wholesale businesses in the sports, outdoor and sports fashion sectors. The Group is the majority shareholder of JD Sports, which operates 2,420 stores across 19 territories. The Group owns Speedo, Berghaus, Canterbury of New Zealand, Endura, Boxfresh, Ellesse, Red or Dead, SeaVees and Mitre. It’s also the UK footwear licensee for Kickers and has a joint venture partnership for Lacoste footwear. The Group also holds interests directly and indirectly, through fund managers, in activities and businesses operating in sectors outside of its core trading activities, to provide the Group with an element of diversification.

JD Sports British sports-fashion retail company

JD Sports Fashion plc, more commonly known as JD Sports or JD, is a British sports-fashion retail company based in Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Pentland Group owns 55% of the company.

ASOS plc is a British online fashion and cosmetic retailer. The company was founded in 2000 in London, primarily aimed at young adults. The website sells over 850 brands as well as its own range of clothing and accessories, and ships to all 196 countries from fulfilment centres in the UK, USA and Europe.

Schuh is a footwear retailer based in Livingston, Scotland. It has 132 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company is predominantly a branded shoe stockist, selling over 80 brands, including: Converse, Vans, UGG, Nike, Adidas as well as its own Schuh label.

The Hut Group

THG PLC, also known as The Hut Group, is a British e-commerce company headquartered at Manchester Airport, England. It operates over 100 international websites that takes brands direct to consumer through its proprietary e-commerce platform. As of 2015, THG's sales had predominantly been outside the UK.

AllSaints is a British fashion retailer headquartered in London, UK. AllSaints sells menswear, womenswear, footwear, and accessories in 281 stores, and has approximately 2,400 employees across 27 countries and regions including the UK, France, Ireland, USA, Mexico, Canada, Russia, South Korea and China.

LK Bennett is a luxury fashion brand, based in London, United Kingdom. The company sells ready-to-wear collections incorporating clothing, shoes, handbags and accessories.

MatchesFashion.com is a London-based clothing retailer. The business operates online and via three stores in London.

JD.com Chinese e-commerce company

JD.com, Inc., also known as Jingdong and formerly called 360buy, is a Chinese e-commerce company headquartered in Beijing. It is one of the two massive B2C online retailers in China by transaction volume and revenue, a member of the Fortune Global 500 and a major competitor to Alibaba-run Tmall.

Farfetch Online fashion retail platform

Farfetch is a British-Portuguese online luxury fashion retail platform that sells products from over 700 boutiques and brands from around the world. The company was founded in 2007 by the Portuguese entrepreneur José Neves with its headquarters in London and main branches in Porto, Guimarães, Braga, Lisbon, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, São Paulo and Dubai.

Bluebella is a British lingerie company founded in 2005 by Emily Bendell, with operations in the UK, US, Australia, France and Italy.

The Iconic is a Sydney-based, Australian online fashion and sports retailer. The company was launched in 2011 and is one of Australia’s largest fashion, sportswear and kidswear destinations. with over 1000 brands and 60,000 items, including Australian labels Sass & Bide, Camilla and Marc, Running Bare and Lorna Jane. International brands stocked include Nike, Levi’s, Calvin Klein and Adidas. THE ICONIC's fulfilment centre is located in Sydney.

Mallzee

Founded in 2012, Mallzee is a fashion mobile commerce company and shopping application. Its application allows online shoppers with a smartphone to access millions of products from over 100 fashion brands around the world. The mobile app was launched in September 2013 and uses a 'like' or 'dislike' swiping interface and has since been labelled as the 'Tinder of fashion', in reference to the Tinder app. In 2015, the application was launched in the US.

BrandAlley is an online fashion retailer based in the United Kingdom. The company runs flash sales across designer brands, launching multiple sales each day which typically last for a week at a time [1]. The site offers womenswear, menswear, children’s collections, homeware and beauty products. BrandAlley ships to the UK and Ireland.

Boohoo Group plc is British online fashion retailer, aimed at 16–30 year olds. The business was founded in 2006, and had sales in 2019 of £856.9 million. It specialises in own brand fashion clothing, with over 36,000 products. Growing rapidly, the company has acquired the brands and online presence of several defunct high street retailers, and also seen controversy over working conditions at some of its suppliers.

Nitin Passi is founder and owner of fashion retailer Missguided. According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2019, he has a net worth of £250 million.

Ruth Elizabeth Chapman is co-founder and former co-CEO of luxury fashion retailer MATCHESFASHION.COM.

About You SE & Co. KG is a German fashion online retailer based in Hamburg. Founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of Otto Group, in 2018 its status changed to that of a portfolio company due to a shift in the shareholder balance. Besides Germany, the retailer is active in 14 European countries. The private label Edited is also sold in traditional retail stores.

References

  1. ↑ "Tom CHAPMAN – Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Evans, Peter (22 September 2019). "Q&A with angel investor Tom Chapman". The Sunday Times. ISSN   0956-1382 . Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Tom & Ruth Chapman Are Among the 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  4. ↑ Paton, Elizabeth (1 September 2017). "Matchesfashion.com Sells Majority Stake to Apax After Fierce Bidding War". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 "Tom Chapman". THE MARQUE. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  6. ↑ "Harper's Bazaar: Perfect Match". www.pressreader.com. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  7. 1 2 December 2017, 15. "Drapers Top 100 2017 – 24. Tom and Ruth Chapman, founders, Matchesfashion". Drapers. Retrieved 14 February 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. 1 2 3 4 Lisa Armstrong, Head of Fashion. "Ruth and Tom Chapman on turning Matches into a multimillion-pound empire from one tiny shop". The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  9. 1 2 3 Stocker, 1 July 2011By Keely. "Tom Chapman". Drapers. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  10. ↑ Smith, Edwin (12 July 2015). "MatchesFashion duo step back after successful shift to online sales". ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  11. 1 2 Butler, Sarah; Wood, Zoe (1 September 2017). "Husband and wife bank £400m from sale of Matchesfashion.com". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  12. ↑ "Matchesfashion plans standalone store for Raey". The Industry. 1 January 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  13. ↑ "Drive Episode 6: Tom Chapman on Building MatchesFashion". The Business of Fashion. 26 October 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  14. ↑ Alexander, Ella. "Matches Changes Brand Name". British Vogue. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  15. ↑ Conti, Samantha (10 May 2017). "Matchesfashion.com Poised to Open Town House on London's Carlos Place". WWD. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  16. ↑ "Apax - Apax Funds to acquire MATCHESFASHION.COM". www.apax.com. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  17. ↑ "The Sunday Times Rich List". login.thesundaytimes.co.uk. Retrieved 14 February 2019.[ dead link ]
  18. 1 2 "Tom Chapman". THE MARQUE. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  19. ↑ "Chapman Office". Chapman Office. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  20. ↑ "Gwyneth Paltrow and Natalie Massenet Invest in 'Size-Inclusive' Brand Universal Standard". The Business of Fashion. 19 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  21. ↑ Wightman-Stone, Danielle (4 February 2020). "CDLP raises 4.3 million euros in investment". fashionunited.uk. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  22. ↑ "Chapman Office". Chapman Office. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  23. ↑ Johnson, Jamie (15 April 2018). "Meet Ruth Chapman: the woman behind online designer clothing empire Matches Fashion". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  24. ↑ D’Souza, Christa (2 October 2016). "The £130m Matches woman: meet Ruth Chapman". The Sunday Times. ISSN   0956-1382 . Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  25. ↑ McGregor, Kirsty. "From Wimbledon to the world: Matchesfashion's founders' lifetime achievement". Drapers. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  26. ↑ "No. 62866". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 2019. p. N11.
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