Office Holdings is a fashion retailer owned by the South African company,

Truworths Truworths is a Cape Town-based, South African clothing retailer, with 728 stores in South Africa, and 49 elsewhere in Africa. Founded as The Alliance Trading Company in 1917, Truworths sells clothing under a number of different brands, including ...

. It operates the "Office" chain of

footwear Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serves the purpose of protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from ground textures and temperature. Footwear in the manner of shoes therefore primarily serves th ...

standalone stores in the UK, Ireland and Germany, along with concessions in Las Vegas, New York City, and Chicago, US. Office Holdings also owns Offspring; a casual shoe and trainer retailer in the UK.

History

The company's first store opened in 1981 under the name "Office London" with a concession inside the "Hyper Hyper" store on

Kensington High Street Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, London, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Kensington High Street is the continuation of Kensington Road and part ...

. The name came from the fact that their merchandise was originally displayed on old office furniture. The first standalone Office store opened on

Kings Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

, London in 1984. By 2014, the company had 105 standalone stores across the UK and circa 50 concessions. In 1996 Office launched the Offspring brand, a fashion sports footwear concept. Poste, an upmarket men's

boutique A boutique () is a small shop that deals in fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (''apothēkē'') "storehouse". The term ''boutique'' and also ''d ...

, was launched in 2000; it is styled after a typical gentleman's club. This was followed by Poste Mistress in 2001, a ladies' footwear boutique selling labels such as Vivien Westwood and Dries van Noten. In 2015 Office was warned by the

Information Commissioner's Office The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It is the independe ...

to improve its data security practices, after the personal details of more than a million customers, including passwords, were found to be stored in an insecure, unencrypted database outside of the company's core systems. Remedial measures included enforcing a revised data retention policy to ensure that data is only kept as long as necessary. The company has changed hands a number of times. Initially being purchased by Tom Hunter of the West Coast Capital Group, whose portfolio at the time included high street shops Qube and USC and hotel chain Travelodge. West Coast subsequently sold to

Silverfleet Capital Silverfleet Capital is a regionally focused European mid-market private equity firm. Silverfleet is an independent firm, owned by its partners, and invests on behalf of a diversified group of international institutional investors. Silverfleet Cap ...

in 2010. In December 2015, South African clothing retailer

acquired Office Holdings for £256 million (R5.5bn).

References

External links

* {{official website, https://www.office.co.uk Retail companies of the United Kingdom